What if you have an inheritance, and you didn’t know about it?

First, see if a probate has been filed in court. Check the court records, and see if the court entered any order distributing the property to you. If the court entered such an order, take the order to whoever has control of the property, and they should give you the property. If the court has not entered such an order, see if you can obtain the property without going to court. If you can’t obtain the property without going to court, ask the court to distribute the property to you. I’ll explain all of these steps in more detail below.

An issue that estate attorneys often encounter is: A client comes in, and they have just found out that they have an inheritance, and they knew nothing about the inheritance before. A relative may have died years ago, and the client just now found out about the inheritance. My clients wonder: What can they do? Can they still collect the property?

The first step: see if a probate has been filed.

Probate is the process where, after a person dies, the decedent’s heirs file an action in court. The heirs ask the judge to distribute the property of the deceased. In an earlier post, I described how to look up Oklahoma probate records online. Read that post, and enter the decedent’s name into the appropriate website. That will tell you if a probate was ever filed in court in Oklahoma.

Each state has its own unique method of recording and publishing probate records. Some states post their records online; others don’t. If you think that someone may have filed a probate in a jurisdiction outside Oklahoma, contact a lawyer in the state where you think a probate may have been filed. That lawyer will likely know about that state’s means of recording probate records, and will be able to tell you if a probate was filed. Because almost all U.S. jurisdictions make their probate records available to the public, you will likely be able to find if a probate was filed somewhere.

If the probate was filed, check if there has been a final decree, or whether the court has distributed any property.

Generally, at the end of every probate case, the judge will sign a “final decree”, which will distribute all property to the remaining heirs. Sometimes, in probate cases, a judge will sign a “partial distribution” in which the judge order part, but not all, of the decedent’s property to be distributed.

If the judge has signed a final decree or a partial distribution, read the document and see if the document says anything about the property which you believe you have a right to inherit. If the document distributed this property, see who received the property. You may find that the court document distributed the property (or a portion of the property) to you. If the document did make such a distribution, then you can usually take a certified copy of the court document to whoever controls the property, show them the document, and ask them to give you your share of the property. If they don’t give you your share, you can ask a judge to order them to give it to you.

Many probate decrees also say something like “If any property is later found which is not mentioned in this decree, this Court hereby order that this property is to be distributed to ______.” If your court order says this, then, if the probate decree is final, and you can prove that the deceased person owned property that the decree does not mention, then you can usually take the decree to whoever controls the property, and they will be legally obligated to give you the property.

Here’s an example of how this works. Suppose that thirty years ago your father died. Unknown to you or anyone else in the family, your father owned $100,000 worth of stock. When the probate case was filed, the probate decree never mentioned the stock, but the decree said, “If any property is later found which is not mentioned in this decree, this Court hereby order that this property is to be distributed to ______.” If your name is in that blank, you can take a certified copy of the decree to the corporation in which your father held this stock, and the corporation will transfer the stock into your name.

But what if there was a final probate decree, and it contained no language about undiscovered property?

Whenever I filed a probate, I always make sure language about later discovered property is in the decree. But other lawyers don’t include this language. If this language was not in the probate decree, you’ll need to ask a judge to reopen the probate.

What if the probate wasn’t final?

If the probate wasn’t final, check and see if there was any order that distributed the property you’re seeking. If there isn’t, then you can file a motion asking a judge to distribute this property.

But what if the probate court distributed the property to someone else, and you believe you’re entitled to the property?

If this occurred, then whoever filed the probate may have (intentionally or not) prevented you from obtaining property that was rightfully yours. If this occurred, you may be able to reopen the probate case on the grounds that the person who filed the probate did not properly handle the distribution of the estate.

What if there was no probate filed?

If no probate was ever filed, you may be able to file a probate yourself. Ask the judge to distribute the property to you. To find out how to file a probate case, read my blog post here.

It’s possible, though, that you will be able to collect the property without ever filing a probate case at all. Not all property needs to be probated. To find out which property doesn’t need to go through probate, read my post here. If the property you are seeking doesn’t need to be probated, then follow the steps needed to collect the property.

What if someone has wrongfully taken the property?

If someone has wrongfully taken property that rightfully belongs to you, you may be able to recover the property by filing a civil suit. In this post, I describe the process of filing a civil suit.

The best way: see if you can resolve the issue outside of court, before you go to court.

If you believe that someone has taken property that is rightfully yours, see if you can work on an agreement with this person. In this post, I describe some of the dangers of filing suit in court, and how acrimonious suits can be. In my experience, the most emotionally contentious types of court cases are lawsuits between family members. Since most contested probate cases are fought between family members, probate cases belong in the category of the worst types of civil cases. Even if you might end up with less, you may be better off settling the issue out of court (if you can do this) than going to court.

Sometimes, though, in probate cases, you need to go to court even if all parties agree on the distribution of property, because only a judge has the authority to distribute the probate estate of a deceased person. So, even after you’ve entered into an agreement, you may still need to go to court. Show the agreement to the judge, and ask the judge to distribute the property according to the agreement. Judges almost always honor settlement agreements in probate cases.

Do you think you’re entitled to an inheritance you haven’t received? Contact the Persaud Law Office.

The Persaud Law Office has helped a number of clients recover inheritances that the client previously didn’t know about. If you’ve become aware of an inheritance of which you were previously unaware, or if you think you might be entitled to an inheritance, give us a call. We may be able to help you.