I thought a widow of someone who dies would be apart of that persons estate.

Question

was told today that the children are the only Heir. 
 
In 2019 the elderly mother died with out a will, then in 2020 the adult son, of the mother, died with out a will and in 2021 the elderly father died without a will.  there is a surviving widow to the son, and three adult children to the son.  
 
No one in the family are interested in proceeding with the estate.  leaving the property in the Name of the elderly mother who died in 2019 and the elderly father who died in 2021. The Widow went up to the court house to start the process to get the property in the hiers names and was told she wasn’t a Heir.  
 
I personally handled an estate one time and I thought before 1970 the wife would be heir to 40% while the children split the remaining 60%, but after 1970 it changed to 33.3% for spouse and 66.6% for children.  
 
and did it matter that the son out lived his mother?

Ben Corcoran · Answer

Without seeing everything, it is possible that the son did not inherit anything. All of the mother's assets may have passed outside of probate to the father, so the son would not have received anything. Then when the father passed, the widow was not part of the father's estate. The three adult children are all but certainly heirs, however.  
 
I would advise that a local attorney is retained to unravel this very complex scenario.

Q: I thought a widow of someone who dies would be apart of that persons estate.