What is Intestate Succession and Why Should I Care?
If you die in Wyoming with a Will, your Estate (assets and rights) is subject to a “Testate” Probate (Court directs how your Estate is settled). If you die without a Will, your estate will be an “Intestate” Probate.
If you don’t have a Will, the State of Wyoming decides how your assets are distributed. If you die intestate with a spouse and children (whether they are children with your spouse or not), one-half of your estate goes to the surviving spouse and the other one-half is divided amongst your children. If you are not married, but have a long-time live-in friend[HD1] , they will receive nothing.
While this might not sound too bad for most people, we have seen some really tough cases. Recently, one of our clients came to see us after her husband unexpectedly passed away. They had a child together, under 18 years of age, at the time of the husband’s death. The deceased husband also had an estranged adult child from a prior relationship.
The husband had owned the family home in his name and forgot to update the title to include his wife. Under Wyoming laws, the home had to be probated, with the wife sharing future ownership with her minor son and the father’s estranged son. Minors in Wyoming are not allowed to receive property directly from a Probate, so we had to set up a Conservatorship and appoint the mother as Conservator to handle the young son’s interest. Luckily, the estranged son was willing to relinquish his interest in the Estate; otherwise, he would have had a one-fourth interest in her home as well.
On top of this, since there was no Will, no one was named as Personal Representative. The Court must go through extra steps to decide who should be Personal Representative and appoint them. The Personal Representative is required to obtain a bond (this is usually waived under a Will) that costs about $1,200. A Will usually grants the right to sell or manage property to the Personal Representative. Without a Will, the Personal Representative must apply to the Court to sell, mortgage, exchange, pledge or lease any real or personal property.
In the end, this family paid a whole lot more to clean up this mess. A good estate planning attorney could have saved them time, money, and heartache with just a simple Will. While many of our clients decide to create revocable trusts, some estate planning is better than none.
If you or your loved one needs advice on how to plan now to save loved ones from disasters like this, call one of our estate planning attorneys at (307) 682-1313.