My mom died without a will and she had came into money before her death of over $500,000. They bought some properties and I checked and everything is in both of their names. Also, the money she got was from esop when she worked, and I was underage when she filled out papers for it, so when I called about it they said he was the sole beneficiary and they would not tell me how much the check would be that he would get. Would he be entitled to everything?? I hope I gave enough info.
I disagree to some extent with the answer above. Whether you could successful prove undue influence by your stepfather in the joint titling of assets would depend on what evidence you have concerning your stepfather's domination of your mother. Was his domination of her so complete that he was able to override your mother's own desires and wishes? If so, what proof do you have to prove this? Did he exercise a
power of attorney
over her affairs before she died? Are there witnesses who will testify that she was afraid of him, vulnerable to him? Did he isolate her from you and other family members? Was the joint titling of her assets kept secret from you until after her death? Proving your stepfather exercised undue influence over your mother in how her property was titled will be very hard to prove -- but it's not impossible -- it depends on the strength of your evidence.
Sadly, I think that you are out of luck, here, unless your stepfather decides to provide for you. Assets that are jointly owned or that pass by beneficiary designation do not go through probate, and they are not subject to the terms of any Will. Your step-father became the full owner of these assets, upon your mother's death. This is one of those situations where, if your mother had planned to take care of you, she needed to set up the estate planning to do so. It would not have been difficult. Because she did not do so, you are stuck.
I am sorry I could not give you better news.
James Frederick
James has given you a very unfortunate, but very true, answer. To respond to your second question to him about your stepfather's abuse, the most I could think of doing would be to sue under a claim of undue influence. You would essentially be saying that your mother's ability to make contracts was completely overcome by your stepfather. While this is very often the case in abuse cases, it is often hard to prove in court, especially after the death of the person who was abused. Why? Because the best source of information is no longer present, and usually the abused person would never admit it during life, so there is no secondary evidence to prove the abuse. You would have to prove abuse, then prove abuse was used to overcome her will, then prove her will was actually overcome, then prove that she would have intended some different distribution had her will not been overcome.
James would know a lot more about this than I since he is a probate attorney, and his answer is spot-on. I wrote separately just to explain a little more about why your situation is quite difficult. There is much more to this than I am writing, I am just providing a bit of exposition hopefully to clear this issue up a bit.
