But how advanced is your grandmother's dementia? If she is still capable of understanding what a will is and what her estate is and of expressing her wishes regarding it, she can make a will.
If she is not capable of doing that - and satisfying a reputable probate lawyer that she can - then you will need to prepare for handling the intestacy process in your state. You can look up how that works online.
It may depend on jurisdiction, but my step dad was able to redo his will earlier this year and he had mild dementia. The lawyer was aware of it, but step dad was aware of what he was doing, clear in his intentions and not being influenced by anyone.
We are lucky that hie did the will POA and Representative Agreement (health POA) as he is now on Palliative Care. Mum who has POA has have to enact it. Mum is also the executor of his will. There are not any assets of great value, so it is not a complicated estate.
No! An Executor is assigned by a person in their will. If no will, its an Administrator is assigned by Probate. At time of death, all POA's are null and void. There is a waiting period, but if a will the Executor takes the Will to be probated. There are responsibilities that have to be be done before probate can be finalized. If no will, then a family member goes to Probate and asked to be made Administrator, who is under the same responsibilities as the Executor but the state is more involved.
The only thing they may be doing is trying for guardianship.
No! If gran cannot be competent & cognitive to do valid will, then when she dies, she will be considered to have died “intestate” aka no will.
Realize she has to do her will, have it witnessed and notarized to be valid according to your states laws. You cannot do it for her. And please don’t let anyone pressure you into doing one “holographic” or outright fraudulently as there will be someone who will dispute “will” validity. In my experience as Executor x 3, is that IF a probate judge senses any concern as to the will, especially last minute before death holographic one, the judge will place the estate as dependent administration with a court appointed Executor. & if it’s a family member named as Executor, they just might have put up a bond for value of estate plus a % in order to be named Executor with dependent administration (so required court oversight on all done, sold or funds spent on). Personal Bonds without collateral are sticky in that your ability to get one depends on your background check / credibility and the value of the Estate. You have to pay for the bond initially, the estate cannot pay for it. Although you can probably include it in your final Executor debt listing when you do the final distribution of assets.
Family / heirs will need to go through however your state laws require to establish heirship to the assets that comprise grannies Estate and file for their heirship to the court / estate administrator as however required as per state laws for “intestate” deaths.
You hire a probate atty to do this for you. Every heir could have their own atty. If that happens, imo, you have to have probate guy who does litigation as there’s likely going to be at least 1 heir who will not be Kum-ba-ya with what the Executor does and the distribution.
Grans E$tate better be $$$ worthwhile to do thi$....
As an aside on this, often family finds that grannies Estate actually has all sorts of issues.... someone who doesn’t do a will often overlooks other legal stuff, like she has years of unpaid property taxes, or she has had debts unknown to you all that have morphed into liens on the property, or she was on Medicaid and they have Estate Recovery ability. Also if home was inherited ages ago title on it may not clear, so to actually transfer it, will require lots of legal. This latter is actually a big reason why in my area (New Orleans) there is still so much property post Katrina that sits blighted, untouched now over a decade as “Aunties” home has passed along & lived in without clear title. Please look into that as it’s a pretty easy search of courthouse recordings.
But how advanced is your grandmother's dementia? If she is still capable of understanding what a will is and what her estate is and of expressing her wishes regarding it, she can make a will.
If she is not capable of doing that - and satisfying a reputable probate lawyer that she can - then you will need to prepare for handling the intestacy process in your state. You can look up how that works online.
We are lucky that hie did the will POA and Representative Agreement (health POA) as he is now on Palliative Care. Mum who has POA has have to enact it. Mum is also the executor of his will. There are not any assets of great value, so it is not a complicated estate.
The only thing they may be doing is trying for guardianship.
Realize she has to do her will, have it witnessed and notarized to be valid according to your states laws. You cannot do it for her.
And please don’t let anyone pressure you into doing one “holographic” or outright fraudulently as there will be someone who will dispute “will” validity. In my experience as Executor x 3, is that IF a probate judge senses any concern as to the will, especially last minute before death holographic one, the judge will place the estate as dependent administration with a court appointed Executor. & if it’s a family member named as Executor, they just might have put up a bond for value of estate plus a % in order to be named Executor with dependent administration (so required court oversight on all done, sold or funds spent on). Personal Bonds without collateral are sticky in that your ability to get one depends on your background check / credibility and the value of the Estate. You have to pay for the bond initially, the estate cannot pay for it. Although you can probably include it in your final Executor debt listing when you do the final distribution of assets.
Family / heirs will need to go through however your state laws require to establish heirship to the assets that comprise grannies Estate and file for their heirship to the court / estate administrator as however required as per state laws for “intestate” deaths.
You hire a probate atty to do this for you.
Every heir could have their own atty. If that happens, imo, you have to have probate guy who does litigation as there’s likely going to be at least 1 heir who will not be Kum-ba-ya with what the Executor does and the distribution.
Grans E$tate better be $$$ worthwhile to do thi$....
As an aside on this, often family finds that grannies Estate actually has all sorts of issues.... someone who doesn’t do a will often overlooks other legal stuff, like she has years of unpaid property taxes, or she has had debts unknown to you all that have morphed into liens on the property, or she was on Medicaid and they have Estate Recovery ability. Also if home was inherited ages ago title on it may not clear, so to actually transfer it, will require lots of legal. This latter is actually a big reason why in my area (New Orleans) there is still so much property post Katrina that sits blighted, untouched now over a decade as “Aunties” home has passed along & lived in without clear title. Please look into that as it’s a pretty easy search of courthouse recordings.