Wilkinson County, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

If "you" are a couple, then you actually should each have a Will. While there is such a thing as a "joint Will," they are not favored in Georgia and don't work very well at all. So I hope you mean that you each have Wills already. "Estate planning" is the process of analyzing a given person or couple's situation (family, finances, wishes, hopes, special issues, etc) and ensuring that they have legal documents, asset titles, and beneficiary designations all set up so that the person or couple and their loved ones are protected against the potentially devastating results of a death or incapacity. So yes, you should have an estate plan. Just having a Will is generally not enough: you also should each have, at a minimum, a power of attorney and an advance directive for health care. You may also need or at least be able to benefit from having other documents, such as revocable or irrevocable trusts, depending on what kinds of assets you own, how much you are worth, and what you want to leave as your legacy. Even if you already have all of the basic documents in place, if they are more than a few years old, it might be a good idea to have them reviewed. Georgia has had a number of very significant changes to its laws in the past 2 years, and there have also been a number of significant changes in federal law. These changes may mean that the documents you currently have could be improved to better serve you and your family. It may be that you don't end up needing to make changes right now, but if you have a review it at least lets you make sure that you know if you DO need some, or if there are some that you could make that would be beneficial for you and better serve your needs. Many estate planning attorneys offer estate planning consultations free of charge and free of obligation (like my firm), and it's time well-spent on your part. Best wishes to you.

Not knowing who the third party is makes answering your question difficult.  It could be that the third party is the administrator of the estate.  If so, he has a right to bring an eviction proceeding. If it is the administrator of the estate, he is not a third party.  He actually is the only person with authority to deal with the property. Presumably you have been paying rent to someone during the time that you have lived in the property? In any eviction proceeding, the party bringing the claim will have to prove that he has the legal right to dispossess you.

It depends. Even without a Will, your father could have provided for you by naming you as beneficiaries on some of his assets. There could be life insurance. There could be IRAs or annuities, as well. If that was not done and you were not joint tenants on any of his assets, then you would be unlikely to receive anything, unless the estate were relatively large. In the absence of a Will, the spouse is entitled to roughly the first $200K and half of the rest.