Q: Help! Succession process with minors and no will. Only property is the house with little equity, how does it work?
My wife passed away and I have 3 minor children. There was no Will and the only community property is our home. My wife and I are on both the mortgage and the title. I am considering selling the home and know I need to go through succession but my question is on the process.
There is not a lot of equity in the home because we have only been in it for 2 1/2 years. At most 40K after the mortgage is paid off.
Can this be taken care of with a title attorney because the value after the mortgage debt is paid will be less than $125K and would be considered simple succession?
the 50% of the profit from the sale of the home would be divided amongst my 3 children and I would be the natural tutorship but is there anywhere that those funds have to go? Into a trust or just accounts with their names? Does that depend on how much the 50% is or how much each would get?
Thank you!
A: No matter who and how many replies you get to this, I would recommend that you contact a successions attorney in your area and have a sit down and specifically discuss your situation and determine the best way to proceed. You use the term "simple succession" which might have a specific legal meaning but I am not certain you mean it. In Louisiana, depending on the size of the estate, you can have a small succession and there are advantages to that if the estate so qualifies. Lastly, depending on the size of the estate you might be able to do a succession by affidavit and bypass probate altogether. But I am not certain that is what you are asking in your post---perhaps you are asking whether you have to place your 3 minor children in possession of the property before you can sell it? You do not as you open the succession and then seek judicial approval to have the succession sell the property but again, without a sit down discussion and a bigger picture of the estate, etc., I am not sure if this is what you want to do. Good luck.
A: The court may want to appoint a curator for the children.
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