A: Loraine’s answer: My condolences to you and your husband on the loss of his grandmother. As for your question: In Georgia, when a deceased person's Will is being offered for probate, the person's heirs must receive notice and a copy of the Will. An "heir" is a person who would receive a portion of the net probate estate if there were no valid Will, and so the offering of a Will for probate affects that person's potential rights and interests with regard to the estate. A person's status as an heir is not affected by whether or not that person is also a beneficiary under a Will; if you are an heir under state law, you are an heir. If a deceased person is not married but has children, then the person's children are first in line to be the person's heirs. If a child died before the deceased person did (e.g., your husband's mother), then that child's own children take that child's place as heirs. What this all means is that your husband and his brother (assuming they are his mother's only children) are among his grandmother's heirs. As heirs, they are entitled to receive notice that a Will is being offered for probate as their grandmother's Will. If you can get all heirs to consent to having a Will admitted to probate, it makes it easier to get the probate done. However: Your husband and his brother should make sure that they fully understand and are okay with anything they are asked to sign, BEFORE they sign it. Ideally, they should consult their own probate attorney, so that the attorney can review any documents, make sure they are getting every document they should be getting, and that they understand what the effects of any signature will be. If they sign a petition consenting to the probate of their grandmother's Will, they could lose any ability they might have to try to challenge it. If they later decide that they want to try to challenge the Will, it might be too late.

A: Loraine’s answer: Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother and stepfather. As for your question, unfortunately, if they lived in Georgia, it is not possible to answer the question without knowing exactly how the deed to their home was written, and, possibly, other information as well.

Just knowing that both of their names were on the deed does not tell anyone whether there was a right of survivorship or not. If the deed said, for example, that they owned the house "as joint tenants" or "as joint tenants with rights of survivorship," then your stepfather would have become the sole owner of the house immediately upon your mother's death, under the right of survivorship. You would then have no rights to the house at his later death unless he left you an interest in the house under his estate planning documents (I am assuming he never legally adopted you). However, if your mother and stepfather owned their home jointly, but the deed did not contain the language needed to create a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, then they likely owned the property as tenants in common, and your mother's interest in the property would have become part of her probate estate at her death. She may have left her probate estate to your stepfather, however, or at least her interest in the house.

It is also possible, for example, that they owned the property jointly, but as Co-Trustees of a trust, and that the trust was actually the owner of the property. Whether you receive an interest in the home would then depend on what the trust says.

The only way you will really be able to find out whether you have a right to the property is going to be for you to find out a lot more information about how the property was owned. You should consider hiring an experience probate attorney in the state where your mother and stepfather lived to help you figure out and request or obtain the information you'll need.

Best wishes to you.

A: Loraine’s answer: The answer to your question is, in short, "It depends." How a person's assets pass at that person's death depends on a lot of different factors. If an asset is owned jointly by that person and another person as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (in Georgia, this applies automatically to financial accounts but only to real estate if the deed that controls title to the property contains language specifically stating that a right of survivorship is intended), then at the person's death the surviving owner will receive that property automatically. If the person owns an asset that is not subject to a right of survivorship, then, if a beneficiary designation (which includes payable on death and transfer on death designations as well as other forms of beneficiary designation) applies to the asset, that beneficiary designation will normally control that asset at the person's death. If the person owns an asset that is not subject to any right of survivorship or any beneficiary designation, then that asset becomes part of the person's probate estate at the person's death. The probate estate is either controlled by a Will, if the person has a Will, or by state intestacy law, if the person does not have a Will. If the person has a trust in place, and the trust owns an asset at the person's death, then the trust controls that asset. So, the answer to your question depends on what you and your husband own, how you own those assets, and whether you have done any estate planning. Under state intestacy law, it also depends on whether your child who is the parent of the granddaughter you wish to benefit is still living or whether that child has died before you, because under state intestacy law in Georgia (I am assuming you are a resident of Georgia, based on your post), if you have no Will, a grandchild will only receive assets from your probate estate if the child of yours who is that grandchild's parent has died before you.

All of that said, you can do estate planning and take steps to make sure that your granddaughter will benefit at your death, if you want her to do so. Estate planning involves making sure that you have your asset titles, beneficiary designations, and legal documents such as a Will and, possible, a revocable trust, set up so that assets will pass the way you want them to at your death. Contact an experienced estate planning attorney and get a consultation. The attorney can help you decide how you want your assets to pass and then help you take the steps required to make sure that happens.

Best wishes to you.