An Odd Inheritance

[SecondAttempt]

This happened with my wife's sister in law a couple of years back. No idea really who the long lost relative was and by the time the estate was settled, all the discovered heirs informed and the search company's cut taken they all received about £4k.

There is a popular BBC TV show on how all this happens that my wife has watched in the past. It's 12 series long now.

I expect there are similar companies in the USA who search to find heirs to estates that would otherwise end up in the coffers of Uncle Sam.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heir_Hunters

My ex-wife inherited about $80k from an aunt who had only met her once when she was about 4 years old. The family had very few kids for a few generations somy wife and her sister were some of the nearest heirs and were named in the will.

So...it happens. But I would be cautious until the money is in the bank.

 

[aja8888]

I had a case in that courthouse back in the early 90s. It's a very interesting old building.

And an interesting old town with lots of history. The Beckwith clan has been there since the 1700's, although the old Litchfield homestead was sold years ago.

 

[Graybeard]

My still living best friend from Litchfield, CT, now living in Missouri, inherited the 1889 Courthouse in Litchfield and he didn't know it until they contacted him. Apparently, his great, great, great (?) grandfather let the town use it and said in the deed that if it's ever sold, the proceeds would go to any remaining family members.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-n...ce-1889-landmark-courthouse-with-clock-tower/





Crazy stuff!

That is crazy! I have driven past that hundreds of times. I don't ever remember hearing this story and it should have been in the Waterbury Re-Am newspaper.

 

[aja8888]

That is crazy! I have driven past that hundreds of times. I don't ever remember hearing this story and it should have been in the Waterbury Re-Am newspaper.

I get the online Waterbury paper for years and never saw the story. How I found out was George called me and told me they contacted him and said he would soon have to start paying property tax on this old building!

 

[gauss]

So here is an odd inheritance story...something out of one of those movies.

DW received a call from our attorney who had been contacted by another attorney. Seems that a distant cousin left about $500k when he passed. He had no direct heirs of any kind and after some time and legalities, the money is to be split among DW and 9 or 10 other cousins.

Here's the thing: nobody knows who this guy was! He appears to have been a cousin of DW's grandfather. Outside of one cousin who vaguely recalls him from 65 years ago, nobody ever met him and nobody had ever even heard of him. None of the cousins knew he existed.

Our attorney says it does indeed appear legit so we're standing-by, but we’ll wait until "the money is in the bank" before celebrating.

So, unlike the movies, there's no castle in Ireland or English title waiting for us but an interesting windfall to say the least!

If you are curious, then I suggest contacting the Probate Court in the county that the deceased resided in at the time of death.

They should have public documents filed regarding the probate estate that you may be able to view.

-gauss

 

[mystang52]

To OP: best wishes and hopes for ultimately landing a nice piece of "found money."
All: Many years ago my 2 brothers and I had the proverbial long lost uncle. He never married, and at some point had moved from here in NJ to California. This was before Internet. When he died, authorities found an old letter with my brother's name and address. He had something like $60,000 in a bank account. That $20,000 each didn't last though: a few days later they also found a safe deposit box key, and inside was a hand-written "will." It wasn't a formal document, notarized, or anything like that, but no reason to suspect forgery; especially when he wrote he wanted his estate to go to Hadassah. Easy come easy go. But Hadassah did send us a nice thank you letter!

 

[marko]

If you are curious, then I suggest contacting the Probate Court in the county that the deceased resided in at the time of death.

They should have public documents filed regarding the probate estate that you may be able to view.

-gauss

Thanks. But the fact that we're down to tracking bloodlines implies there was no will so other than a death certificate, I'm not sure what else might be there. All we know is that he was a cousin of DWs grandfather.

Regardless, it's our attorney's job to worry those details.

While this has been going on for about a year already, I expect it to take a bit more time, but I'll report back "when the money's in the bank"...or we find out otherwise!

 

[ARW44]

About 17 years ago, I received a call from a representative of a petroleum company who said that his company wanted to lease for five years the mineral rights to property that an ancestor of mine had purchased in western Georgia. After "the war," he and his partner were searching for coal reserves. They didn't find any. When the land was sold, my ancestor apparently retained the mineral rights, which passed from generation to generation by will, to me, without my knowledge at all. Since I, my mother, and my grandmother are each only children, the rights weren't divided too many ways. The caller sent me a bank draft form to fill out. I searched, and found that he was real, his company was real, his bank was real, and the form did not authorize any withdrawal from my bank, so I completed the form and mailed it. Shortly, $30K was transferred into my account.

 

[jazz4cash]

Finally a couple of her cousins there took the bull by the horns and an agreement was reached that the proceeds would be split among her grandfathers children and any grandchildren whose father or mother was was a child of the grandfather but had died. DW's father had already died, but she has a half-sister still living there that had her contact information.

This sounds a bit shady. If one is entitled to proceeds, they should be entitled to have a vote to decide if the property is to be sold or held jointly. We’ve had that issue in our family a couple of times. A grandmother’s home went to 4 sibs. One refused to sell, the home fell into disrepair and no one got anything out of it. Maybe the cousins agreement was to distribute the asset to relatives that were not technically entitled.

 

[catii]

I got an entire house! My dad was the oldest of 12 brothers & sisters, & he outlived all but one. It was shortly after my divorce that I got a call, followed by a registered letter that I was the sole recipient of a rather large home on the east coast. My ex had been awarded our paid-off home, & I was wondering how I could gather enough money for another down payment, when I responded to a weird letter.

I didn't count my chickens until I had the deed in hand, also paid off. Even better, the lawyet who handled the estate contacted me, & offered to buy the home, at full market value - an unusual offer, 45 years ago! I didn't know the brother, & never planned to visit the area, so I accepted her offer, & quickly had a nice, certified 6-figure check in my hands!

I've since parlayed those funds into a large home & two rental properties here, in Hawaii - all paid off, of course -

 

[indiajust]

My uncle helped an elderly friend from his church back in the 90's. She had outlived everyone. They all thought she was poor, she was just depression era tight. Saved well, invested mediocre, and spent nothing.

She was still sitting on war bonds and such, which pay terrible interest rates and were inflated away. But it was still several 100k just in bonds. He managed to scurry up her living relatives, none of whom knew her. Did 3 years of Xmas max checks out to almost 50 people before she died and the rest was largely eaten by the tax man, Pennsylvania is not a cheap state to die in apparently.

This feels quite common to me and I expect to see more from the generations that scattered all over the country and lost track of one another.

 

[luckydude]

So here is an odd inheritance story...something out of one of those movies.

DW received a call from our attorney who had been contacted by another attorney. Seems that a distant cousin left about $500k when he passed. He had no direct heirs of any kind and after some time and legalities, the money is to be split among DW and 9 or 10 other cousins.

Here's the thing: nobody knows who this guy was! He appears to have been a cousin of DW's grandfather. Outside of one cousin who vaguely recalls him from 65 years ago, nobody ever met him and nobody had ever even heard of him. None of the cousins knew he existed.

Our attorney says it does indeed appear legit so we're standing-by, but we’ll wait until "the money is in the bank" before celebrating.

So, unlike the movies, there's no castle in Ireland or English title waiting for us but an interesting windfall to say the least!

This reminds me of the story of an Australian boilermaker/butcher who inherited the title of Earl of Lincoln upon the death of his 10th cousin, the last Duke of Newcastle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fiennes-Clinton,_18th_Earl_of_Lincoln

Unfortunately he didn't inherit the duke's estate, which wasn't entailed to the title.

And then there is this retired grocery clerk living in Yuba City, CA, who is in line to inherit the Earldom of Essex:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Capell

Unfortunately he won't get an estate either; it was squandered by an earlier earl back in the 1920s and 30s.

 

[socca]

I inherited an unbelievable amount of unwanted USPS charity solicitations from my dad. He liked to give a tiny amount of money to a huge number of charities (50+) each year. When I filed a USPS address change from his house to my house, all of these charities were notified of the address change and now I'm the lucky recipient of all of this junk mail. An average day brings five solicitations; a busy day brings eight and a light day brings two. Thanks, dad!

 

[braumeister]

I inherited an unbelievable amount of unwanted USPS charity solicitations from my dad. He liked to give a tiny amount of money to a huge number of charities (50+) each year. When I filed a USPS address change from his house to my house, all of these charities were notified of the address change and now I'm the lucky recipient of all of this junk mail. An average day brings five solicitations; a busy day brings eight and a light day brings two. Thanks, dad!

I would always write "DECEASED -- RETURN TO SENDER" on the envelope and put it back in my outgoing mail.

 

[socca]

I would always write "DECEASED -- RETURN TO SENDER" on the envelope and put it back in my outgoing mail.

This might help. So far I've been hoping for solicitation fatigue by the charities. I don't know if/when this will happen.

 

[chris2008]

Solicitation fatigue? Not as long as there are any donations to pay for stamps...

Sent from my SM-G950F using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Ian S]

That $20,000 each didn't last though: a few days later they also found a safe deposit box key, and inside was a hand-written "will." It wasn't a formal document, notarized, or anything like that, but no reason to suspect forgery; especially when he wrote he wanted his estate to go to Hadassah.

Many states recognize a hand-written will. It's called a holographic will and is recognized in both New Jersey and California. It's also accepted in Arizona where I live.

 

[user5027]

... He managed to scurry up her living relatives, none of whom knew her. Did 3 years of Xmas max checks out to almost 50 people before she died and the rest was largely eaten by the tax man, Pennsylvania is not a cheap state to die in apparently.

...

The tax rate varies depending on the relationship of the heir to the decedent.

The rates for Pennsylvania inheritance tax are as follows:

• 0 percent on transfers to a surviving spouse or to a parent from a child aged 21 or younger;
• 4.5 percent on transfers to direct descendants and lineal heirs;
• 12 percent on transfers to siblings; and
• 15 percent on transfers to other heirs, except charitable organizations, exempt institutions and government entities exempt from tax.

https://www.revenue.pa.gov/TaxTypes/InheritanceTax/Pages/default.aspx

 

[Walt34]

This might help. So far I've been hoping for solicitation fatigue by the charities. I don't know if/when this will happen.

It happens, but it takes a long while.

At one time my older sister used to collect spare change and when it reached ~$20 or so she'd cash it in and send the amount to some charity or other. She got so tired of the deluge of solicitations that she stopped donating to any charities at all. Eventually the solicitations did stop but it took something like ten years.

 

[jollystomper]

This sounds a bit shady. If one is entitled to proceeds, they should be entitled to have a vote to decide if the property is to be sold or held jointly. We’ve had that issue in our family a couple of times. A grandmother’s home went to 4 sibs. One refused to sell, the home fell into disrepair and no one got anything out of it. Maybe the cousins agreement was to distribute the asset to relatives that were not technically entitled.

This was not in the U.S. Inheritance laws worked (and were enforced) much differently there.

 

[marko]

Here's an update:
One of the cousins (an attorney) decided to take it upon himself to do the leg work. "Why pay another guy, I can do it for free". After a year and a half, he did....Absolutely. Nothing.

So DW's brother (retired director of a national bank) picked up the project, went to his family attorney and got the ball rolling again. Everything seems to check out, a trust has been set up for the eventual distribution, notifications in the local paper's classifieds are being made. DW signed some additional papers this week.

One idiotic cousin decided that she wasn't willing to "share any money with any attorney for any reason" and, incredibly, dropped out.

A few more steps to go but things seem to be moving in the right direction. More later.

 

[pb4uski]

...One idiotic cousin decided that she wasn't willing to "share any money with any attorney for any reason" and, incredibly, dropped out. ...

I would suggest to your DW that she try her best to not acknowledge that person was somewhere in the bloodline.

 

[marko]

I would suggest to your DW that she try her best to not acknowledge that person was somewhere in the bloodline.

As they say, "there's always one"

 

[Texas Proud]

I do not see why some think that a cousin of a grandfather might not be known... lot of families do not keep in touch at that level...


I met one granddad once.. the other was 'too busy'... we only know about their siblings or cousins because my mom did genealogy going back to the 1600s... never met a single one...


AND, my parents siblings we met a few, but not all..



This was due to my parents moving down from NY state and being poor... just did not travel...

 

[marko]

I do not see why some think that a cousin of a grandfather might not be known... lot of families do not keep in touch at that level...
...

As a child, I was extremely close to my mother's parents but I might have seen my father's parents once or twice a year, if that.
And they only lived a quarter mile away. They were just very distant and not warm people. I'd meet my grandmother on the street and she wouldn't know who I was...a bit harsh when you're 9 years old.

In this case, DW was from a large Boston Irish family. This guy apparently never married, lived alone and more or less shunned the rest of the family. He was DWs grandfather's cousin it seems.