No next of kin

[Wagtail]

It varies enormously depending on state law. The big questions to start with are what your state law says, how big the estate is, and who the living relatives are. The first question can probably be answered by a competent lawyer in fifteen minutes. The second and third questions may require some detective work.

A good summary of general principles is here:
What Happens If You Die Without a Will? - FindLaw

As what qsf and KennyG said.

Tassie State government has a service department that will act as an impartial executor... for the standard percentage (10%?) that any executor would receive.

25% is way too much IMHO.

 

[fishheadbob]

My friend got a letter from a lawyer in Scotland telling him that a very distant cousin he had never heard of died intestate there. He thought he had some Scot in him but always described himself as British and Italian. I read the letter and agreed with him it had to be a scam. Two years later he has cashed checks for about $14,000 and there may be one more. The fees were hefty, looks like about 30%, but included paying a geneologist to track down the old recluse's relatives in America, Australia, Great Britain, etc. In this instance the big fees were worth it.
25% for the original poster's case sounds high. Better that the relatives kick this around after the funeral and see how they want to proceed. I had heard somewhere that a simple estate might cost 10% .

 

[Wagtail]

fishheadbob, there was a British 'reality show' series involving a couple of these estate research firms/companies doing this... a 'head to head' race between the two to get the potential inheritance recipients to "sign with them" (and their commission/fee).

Knowing the UK, the various firms/companies doing this would be regulated as to how high the commission/fee would be.

 

[mjarrels]

Prince died without a will, so far the lawyers have taken everything.

mark

 

[buckeyefarmer]

A couple of my relatives involved with this are lawyers, so they are looking into it.

 

[PILOON]

I recently had to settle our mother's estate.
She had everything in a trust and was coerced by them to let them* be the executers.
Fortunately the administrator was honest enough to tell us as to how to get the trust 'un named' as their fees would have been exorbitant.
As executers they are really practiced in huge and complicated estates which mother's was not.

Still it was costlier than it should have been as we attracted a 'not so friendly notary' (honest) due mainly from a bad recommendation.**

*she was deaf and knew nothing about estate settlement, and can just see her nodding with he 'serious face' acting as if she comprehend all while she heard 1/3 of the conversation.

Her will was the simplest possible, her estate evenly divided between the 3 siblings! which by law did not even require a will.
The result was that to 'break the written will' that the trust conned her in doing cost the estate $3000. to break.
The administrator had advised me that their fees probably eat close to $10K the way they were set up and actually advised as to how to 'break' the clause.

** he demanded payement up front and to boot failed to provide proper and complete documents to release the estate.
I took one of us to visit the courts to unearth the necessary paperwork, and that in itself was a tedious exercise due to location and non familiarity of that massive complex.

Then to further complicate things one sibling insisted on untraceable funds so as to not disrupt his welfare status.

 

[TheMan419]

Call an estate/probate lawyer in the big town near where she passed. Most states have specific laws on intestate inheritance that will spell out exactly who gets what %. In Indiana that is all spelled out and if it is under $50K total to be disbursed you do not need to go to court unless there is a fight over something.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

So, one of my relatives found who the court appointed attorney is who will settle the estate (it isnt the one who sent us the letter). Fortunately none of us signed and returned the documents, because for their 25% cut, their only work would have been to cash our inheritance, and send 25% less to us.

The court appointed attorney will take care of everything.

 

[tractorshopper]

I did probate for my Mother. In her county in SC, you do not need a lawyer to go through the process, but she did have one piece of property in Michigan, which did require a lawyer. My dad didn't want to deal with any of it and I was the alternate Executor, so he signed it over to me to handle for him. Thanks Dad. Was a pain the behind dealing with the Michigan property due to some other issues where my Mom's Father's deeds were never issued many years ago during his probate, so had to get it all sent forward from 1986 to catch up the chain of ownership before I could finally get it in my Dad's name. Took me about a year and a half where the rest of the probate for SC would have easily been done in 6 months and most of that was just waiting time for anyone to make some type of claim.

Have 4 brothers and sisters and had to update other items along the way, but they all signed off with no objections and otherwise went smoothly.

My biggest advise for anyone on here to help their kids or NOK is to set up any 401k accounts and insurance policies as beneficiary accounts while you're alive. These funds do not have to go through probate process (unless some huge amount of money like $5MM or more) and are pretty much immediately reassigned with presentation of the death certificate and/or the newspaper obituary notice. One of those accounts that Mom had set up literally changed the ownership while I was on the first phone call with them. While I was talking to them, they looked on the Internet and saw her Obit and did the disbursement by phone, then mailed the check and new forms for Dad to set up his beneficiaries. I just had to mail them an official death certificate and the new beneficiary form. That simple. Did not have to be listed as part of the estate or subject to estate taxes due to the amount of money.

 

[Groo]

So, one of my relatives found who the court appointed attorney is who will settle the estate (it isnt the one who sent us the letter). Fortunately none of us signed and returned the documents, because for their 25% cut, their only work would have been to cash our inheritance, and send 25% less to us.

The court appointed attorney will take care of everything.

Sounds like the absolute best possible news.

Might be worth letting the state bar know about mr. 25%'s actions. sounds amoral at the very least.