Father in law is in bad health. Couple of years ago he suffered a stroke and last week suffered a heart attack.

Run down:

-71 years old
-probably overweight
-poor diet
-lack of exercise
-diabetic
-is not married or in a relationship
-2 kids from my mother in law, kids and mother in law are still alive
-2 kids from a relationship he was having just before marrying my mother in law, both kids have died but their mother is still alive
-has 1 living sibling
-owns a townhouse worth maybe $200k
-owns a 2002ish Corvette coupe that might not be running
-owns 2 safes with multiple firearms
-bunch of other small stuff like furniture, TVs, etc.

He's in the hospital now in ICU. He does not have a will and has not given anyone directions on what to do with his earthly possessions after he dies.

My mother in law has a will. His family has pushed him for years to put something together so they know what to do with all his shit (most of it is shit). Long story short, he was such an asshole that my mother in law took their two kids and ran away on fathers day a long time ago. Filed for child support and he fought that in court despite the judge looking at him and my wife (they look alike) and asking him if he was serious about fighting this. His 2 other kids from the other woman, never had any relationship with them. Never paid any child support or saw the kid. Those kids were in ill heath last few years and his family kept telling him to go see them as they were dying. He kept putting it off and they died before he made it. Those kids are older than my wife and sister in law.

This asshole had the balls to tell my wife when she was a teenager: I love you, kid but I wish you were born a son... All this when he had a son he never had a relationship with.

This guy never benefited his family in life and it appears that he won't even benefit them in death. In fact, he was so generous he told my wife if he won the lotto, he would give us his townhouse

He lives in the Chicagoland area as does my mother in law and sister in law (with her husband, 2 kids and grand kid). Will we have to go up there and clean the mess out? He's an awful hoarder. My brother in law and sister in law aren't exactly the physical or handy type to clean his stuff out. That means it would fall on me, someone who lives 1,200 miles away... When we finally convinced my mother in law to move out of her home in the hood and into a senior apartment, it was us who drove up and (I) did the majority of the lifting. I had no emotional attachment to her belongings and trashed a bunch of it. Moving from a home into a 1 bedroom apartment required some downsizing.

Part of me also believes he's a fraud in some form. Claims he was in the Army and in Vietnam (those we believe to be true) and that he retired from the Army. But when he visited us at Ft. Bliss years ago, both times he left his retired ID at home... I know of no retired military who does not carry their blue card around with them. He happened to be visiting when we had a brigade event, met my battalion commander and promptly introduced himself as Sergeant Major...

If he doesn't get his shit straight and dies without a will, who does the responsibility of taking care of his stuff fall to? Part of me is thinking I need to tell my sister in law to apply for a FOID card so they can take possession of his firearms. I bet Illinois would love it for those firearms to be destroyed if no one wanted them.

If you've gotten to this point, thanks for the read. This was a long post.

Might be time to talk to a lawyer?

Call and get a referral of an attorney in the Chicago area who does wills.There are several on this forum. It is complicated. If you die without a will each state has its own set of laws governing disposition of assets.

quote:

If you die without a will each state has its own set of laws governing disposition of assets.

^^^^ This.

Based on my experience here in Missouri, with our laws, the estate goes to probate. Those with claims against the estate get their money. Everything left over is split to the survivors. If there is a spouse only, they get it all. If there is a spouse with children, the spouse gets half and the children get the other half (split between them if more than one child).

Courts assign somebody to handle the liquidation of the estate.

A will appears to be a much better solution.

Unless Shitcago has no-will laws that supercede the state, here is what Illinois does, apparently.

https://www.nolo.com/legal-enc...ession-illinois.html

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
Might be time to talk to a lawyer?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Call and get a referral of an attorney in the Chicago area who does wills.There are several on this forum. It is complicated. If you die without a will each state has its own set of laws governing disposition of assets.

I can talk to a lawyer all day, we all can but the problem is that he refuses to accept the fact that he has to deal with this issue and keeps pushing it off.

"Oh, I'll get around to it..." He doesn't work, lives alone. No one has a spare set of house keys (he's locked himself out before) or combination to the safes where he keeps important documents.

My mother in law is here with us now and she is pissed. I think one reason is because he abandoned his family when he was alive, he failed them and now it appears he's going to fail them in death, too...

You'd think with 3 grandkids and a great grandkid, he would want to get his stuff in order so at least they can have something since the only thing he left his kids was alone...

The first tme I heard the term "He died intestate", I thought to myself "Damn, that sounds really painful!"

Sounds like a good opportunity for all involved to step away, remove that stress and continue on with lives. None of this will be worth the heartache and pain and none of you are obligated. Make a claim once in probate.

He sounds like a peach.

quote:

I can talk to a lawyer all day, we all can but the problem is that he refuses to accept the fact that he has to deal with this issue and keeps pushing it off.

Maybe time to talk to a psychologist. {I am not kidding}. Help you clarify your issues.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Sounds like a good opportunity for all involved to step away, remove that stress and continue on with lives. None of this will be worth the heartache and pain and none of you are obligated.

Agreed.

Walk the fuck away.

He only has power if people let him.

I saw something every similar with my FIL - his mother was a POS, abandoned all the kids, then came back years later to 'run the family'. She flaunted money over the kids, tried to hold it over them as 'inheritence' but eventually they all gave up on her.

She died nearly penniless addicted to prescription drugs. None of them gave a shit.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
You'd think with 3 grandkids and a great grandkid, he would want to get his stuff in order so at least they can have something since the only thing he left his kids was alone...

Newsflash - he doesn't care about anyone but himself.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:...
He's in the hospital now in ICU. ...

I guess it's to late for him to start running drugs for the cartel.

AFAIK, in no state is anybody required to do anything in regard to the passing of a relative. You're MIL can wash her hand of it, and the city/state will have to take care of it in some form. If there are any assets left over, the state will distribute them to the next of kin based on a precedence coded into the estate law.

quote:

My mother in law is here with us now and she is pissed. I think one reason is because he abandoned his family when he was alive, he failed them and now it appears he's going to fail them in death, too...

You'd think with 3 grandkids and a great grandkid, he would want to get his stuff in order so at least they can have something since the only thing he left his kids was alone...

Some people never get their act together and will go to their grave being self-centered, assholes who think they have all the answers. In his mind, it's his final middle-finger to the world, to include his family.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Sounds like a good opportunity for all involved to step away, remove that stress and continue on with lives. None of this will be worth the heartache and pain and none of you are obligated. Make a claim once in probate.

He sounds like a peach.

agreed

man sounds like a bastard

no room in my life for jackasses like that

he can keep his crap

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The state has a will for him. Likely with no wife, falls to 50% each surviving child. Will have to go through probate though and take a while to get.

Had an uncle die in FL without a will and negligible assets. Took his kids 18 months and several headaches to get things settled.

Don't care about anything left to fight over. That's what I did when my dad died and when my step-dad died. When my dad died, I told my sister and my mom that I didn't need anything. I already had the family guns and I didn't want anything more.

My sister ended up cutting me $11k after his house sold. It worked out good as we used it to pay for upgrades on our new construction home that I was in the middle of buying.

When my step-dad died, he took all his debt with him and my mom had to move in with his sister (my step-aunt) in Plymouth, CA. When my step-aunt died a couple of years later, she left no will and one of the sons took control of the estate (two properties in gold mining country and a mechanic shop) and liquidated everything, including the property my mom was supposed to live the rest of her life on and evicted his own brother, his sister in law and two nieces.

My mom had just got out of the hospital after being treated for sepsis to find an eviction notice on her cabin door. Mom moved in with me last year.

Honestly, try not to give a rats ass about anything he leaves in this world and free yourselves.

Tony.

A few things may pass outside of probate if they are titled correctly, like the condo and car.
The rest sounds like more in legal fees and trouble to settle than it's worth.
Sucks to have relatives like that but you don't get to decide how others choose to act.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
The first tme I heard the term "He died intestate", I thought to myself "Damn, that sounds really painful!"

It’s very painful. For the heirs.

We had a “special personal rep” gig assigned by the court this summer that yielded 10 more heirs, previously unknown to the immediate family, of 1 heir.

The estate is now chopped up into 11 parties with the genealogist outfit getting 15% of each of the 11 heirs cut.

The value of the estate is 1.1 million. That’s the home value at market.

It hurts a lot when you work out the math.

My Aunt, a French citizen died in France about a year ago. It is great fun dealing with French law firms and genealogy firms who speak limited English. The identification of proper heirs has required mounds of paperwork and overseas calls and letters. I have passed muster but we are still waiting on the remaining heirs to submit the proper paperwork to the genealogy firm so the French law firm can move forward. Thankfully she was a very pleasant person who just never got around to filing a will.

As a side note, the French postal service could not find Paris and a second letter was required. Glad to know the USPS is not unique.