Esopus, NY Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

It depends. You need to be more specific. This information is only intended to give general information in response to an inquiry. It does not establish an attorney client relationship. This response is only based upon the limited facts presented and is merely intended to assist you in determining if you should contact an attorney to provide you with legal advice.

Yes creditors can collect after death. A will needs to be probated if there are sufficient assets to submit the estate to probate. In California that is $150,000 or more in gross assets. Another benefit to submitting an estate to probate is that it limits creditor's to 4 months in order to make a claim against the estate as long as they are given proper notice. I recommend probate be done through a lawyer.

The property can easily be transferred by deed from your mother to the two children, but she needs to be appointed executor (if there was a will) or administrator (if no will) of your brother's estate, because an executor or administrator's deed is required to make the transfer. Until a legal representative is appointed nobody has any legal right to do anything with your brother's assets. Although your father doesn't need to be part of the transfer, he should be, to ensure there is only one deed, and that deed sets out all the ownership rights of everyone. Once your mother is appointed, she and your father should execute a new deed that gives 25% to each of the two children, and 50% to your father. They will also need to decide how they want to hold the property: as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (meaning when one dies, the other two automatically take half of the share of the deceased) or as tenants-in-common (meaning when one dies, that person's next of kin inherits their share of property).