Commerce, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

If you are named as the person who receives the balance in a bank accoutn at the death of another person, that money is not part of the probate estate.  That money is yours adn you have no obligatni to pay any of the deceased's person's bills or funeral expenses with the money.  It is yours to keep and spend as you see fit. 

Chances are, no - not entirely anyway. If son died without children and did not transfer title to the house to his wife and himself, then under Michigan's intestate succession laws, after certain allowances, the property in his estate would be divided one half to the wife and one half to the mother. Would probably require more assets than just the house in probate to make that happen. That's why you don't transfer property to children as a part of your estate plan - not unless you intend an outright gift and to give up control of the asset.

You don't have any options. Your father has them. There are ways to help protect an estate plan against the possible results of a challenge and thereby better ensure that the desired beneficiary receives the intended assets. These could include your father creating a revocable trust and transferring the property to the Trustee of the trust before he dies, which could help avoid delay caused by a potential Will contest, giving you the property now or selling it to you (if doing so won't create problems for your father), or adding you as a joint owner now. But he should not take any steps without the help of an experienced estate planning attorney, and, since he is the owner of the property, HE has to be the one to take any such steps. You can't control the property right now, and there's nothing you can do to protect your expected inheritance except to try to ensure your father understands the potential value of doing good, solid, estate planning.