Are offspring entitled to a deceased parent's estate?

No, The will says it all. if there is a will (legal, witnessed, and all that), then it holds any and all power. It will be followed and honored by the probate court.

Forsberg’s early will means nothing if it was superseded by a new legal one.

The are two possible ways she can win:

1) if she can prove that the newer will was illegally made or not witnessed or something along that line. And I am going to assume that Weiland was smart enough to have crossed all the legal ‘t’s and dotted ll the legal ‘i’s.

2) If the divorce decree says something about inheritance in case of death. Most divorce decrees never mention that possibility.

Two bottom lines:

1) if you act like a shit to your ex husband, then don’t expect much from him

2) she’s SOL.

She would be smart to get an attorney. It will cost her and she may not win, but she will at least have tried.

@jca So it sounds like you do believe the children should get a deceased father’s estate based on blood relation?

If the children are not even mentioned in the current will, then she may get a probate judge (depending on the state) to rule that their inheritance had not even been considered, and apportion some of the estate to them. Or if he died with no will at all (or if the current will is voided for any number of reasons, and no prior will can be substituted in its place), then he would be considered to have died “intestate” (without a will), and the property division would be in accordance with the rules of the jurisdiction (the state, in the USA) for intestate inheritance.

No, they are not. However, the courts tend to decide to split the baby in the case of large estates in which the children are completely cut out of the will.

But, more importantly, the court is unlikely to name his ex-wife executor, which is financially beneficial p[osition.

@CWOTUS Can you explain “children’s inheritance not even considered?”

My mom remarried at 65 years old. They both wrote new wills leaving everything to the other one. I was upset for awhile, because I have been with my mom for three times as long as this new guy and am her child, for God’s sake.
Then I allowed myself to move past the idea that I am entitled to anything because traditionally parents want to pass something down to their children. There just isn’t any norm anymore, and nothing is mine unless someone is generous towards me. That’s the breaks.

In my example, I think Mary is being selfish by forcing the estate through legal proceedings, dwindling the value. And you know it will take years before the dust really settles.

I think it applies more to minor children, @AdventureElephants, but the theory seems to be that if the (generally male) decedent did not even acknowledge the existence of his minor children it was as if he didn’t even realize their existence (at least in a legal sense, or that’s the case to be made, anyway), so the child’s mother (generally) or other family members could press the claim that “If he had known, then surely he would have provided for his child.”

In your mother’s case, I can certainly understand her wish to provide for her spouse, should she die first, assuming you’re a capable and relatively healthy adult with some kind of security of your own. That may not be the case for an elderly spouse with no employment, fixed income, ongoing and probably worsening health issues, and unlikely prospects for improvement.

Long before they died, my parents were asking us to browse through the house and take whatever keepsakes we wanted to have, because they certainly weren’t using most of them any more. Maybe you could have that talk with your mother?

@AdventureElephants: What I believe doesn’t matter. I’m saying that if someone wants to contest a will, they should hire an attorney. What the outcome ends up as would be anybody’s guess. The laws vary from state to state.

@CWOTUS My mother and her spouse are very well off, so that wasn’t the logic. In the end I decided it never was mine and I can’t be upset about her choices. I guess if I chose to address my feelings, I would say I’ve always been slightly disappointed and sad that I was born into a family that thought it was my job to earn my way… It’s been a long road to put myself through college, buy my first car without a co-signer, etc when my parents are fully present in my life and considered upper middle class. Maybe that’s jealousy that some people have had it easier, or whatever. Either way, I can’t dwell on the what-if or the thought of my inheritance that never was. As far as her tangible assets, she is a hoarder (seriously) and I am a minimalist. I told her I’ll take all of the artwork when she asked me, but that was just to be polite. She collects junk, and a lot of it.

As far as Mary goes… She was collecting $60k a month child support, so acknowledging the existence was proven from birth. That’s very interesting knowledge in general, though.

@jca I asked in my last sentences for opinions, so of course yours counts. Fluther wouldn’t exist otherwise.

I don’t think a will should be superceded.

In NYS (the state I live in), if someone dies without a will, and they have children under 18, their assets to go the children under 18. Of course, without a will, this involves going through the lengthy legal process of court.

When I think about my personal opinion about this topic, I think about it from a standpoint of “what if I had young children” vs. the standpoint of “what if I were in someone’s will and then they had a baby with someone else?” Then, in pondering further, I realize this is why my personal opinion doesn’t matter – because the law is supposed to be objective.

Only if it says so in the will or trust. Otherwise, nada. (IMO)

This makes the practices of burial tombs in Egypt and funeral pyres in other cultures more of a way to frustrate family members.
“Do you remember that urn you have said you really like? Had your eye on? You’re gonna have to cross the River Styx to visit and see it! Good luck with that.”

In America, the answer is no. However, if there is no will the laws of intestate succession will force the deceased’s wealth to be passed to descendants. The reason we have estate tax is because the American philosophy is that children should work and build their own lives rather than depending on their parents’ fortunes as their own income. This was part of English law that made its way into American law.

If there is a VALID will, the will determines to whom the estate is distributed.

If there is a VALID will that does not mention living children, the court may “make the assumption” that the grantor “forgot” about his children and change the will to benefit the living children. For this reason, if one wants to be sure his children do NOT receive anything via the will, the grantor is encouraged to name his children in the will and grant to them a nominal gift, such as $1.00. By doing this the court will make no such assumption about the children.

The laws here in Norway skip spouses all together when there are children. The courts, when there is no will, divide between the offspring, but if you die without a will and it has to go to court, the court charges a HUGE fee to the estate. Best to have a will. But, here, when there are kids, and people write wills, the spouses are seldom considered to inherit everything. There might be an insurance policy to cover a mortgage so that the family doesn’t have to move when the children are young, but it will be specified in the insurance what the money is to be used for. If the house is under both their names, it goes over to the surviving person.
When my ex’s father was obviously not going to see much more time, the family scrambled to get practical things sorted out before he died so things wouldn’t have to go to too many estate offices and such like. The cabin was transfered to the ownership of one of the sons. His bank account contents was emptied into his wife’s and the house was in both their names and is paid off, so it automatically went to her. When she dies, the house will be sold and the money divided between the two boys, unless she writes a will and names her grandchildren in. She has already given me and my son antiques and jewellery she wants passed down in the family with stories behind each one, and when I die, everything, including the stories, will go to my son, even if I remarry, which I won’t. My house isn’t worth much in capital at the moment, but it is a good place to live. If I was smart, I would take out a small insurance policy so that if I do die, the house could be freehold and then my son could stay in the house or sell it for the full value. I’m trying my damnedest to hold on until he’s in university.