My daughter is named in her grandfather's Will along with the Executor (his niece). They were to equally split his property, wherever situated, in equal shares in joint tenancy. She received NOTHING. My father did own property, had investments, and I and my daughter is wondering why she didn't get anything. I have the original Will and the niece (my cousin) has a copy. I don't think the Will was ever filed in court and she says my daughters name was not on anything and that is what joint tenancy means, 'if her name is on anything' then that is when they split whatever. That doesn't sound right and I want to know what we should do. The niece moved her daughter into my father's property a few days before he passed and got rid of all of his belongings. This just doesn't seem right.
Please schedule a consultation with a licensed Kentucky attorney familiar with wills and real property as soon as you can. There are definitely details here that the attorney can help you sort through. In the meantime, I will briefly describe what a joint tenancy is.
In a joint tenancy, two or more persons have the same undivided fractional share in the land (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.), with what is called "rights of survivorship." This means that when one of the landowners die, his/her share is automatically absorbed in the remaining landowners' interest. So if you have two joint tenants with rights of suvivorship, and each joint tenant owns 1/2 in fee simple, the surviving tenant will own the full parcel, automatically, upon the other tenant's demise. In most states, if one of the joint tenants sells, deeds, or conveys his/her interest before death ("inter vivos"), the third party who takes ownership will be a joint tenant in common vis-a-vis the original joint tenants, whereas the original tenants remain joint tenants with rights of survivorship among themselves. Please note that the principal difference between a joint tenant and a joint tenant in common is that the latter does not come with an automatic right of surviorship as I described above.
So assuming that the will was valid, and that there are no legally significant facts omitted from your description, your daughter and the niece should take 1/2 undivided interests as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. But what your Kentucky attorney needs to clarify is whether there is any defect with the will, or some other legally significant event, that might have thwarted the grandfather's testamentary intent. You will not know that until you have an attorney examine the situation for you.
If the grandfather had property and investments the Will should have been probated. You need to contact an attorney to follow up and ensure the executor carries out the terms of the Will.
