Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

you have to file a probate action in the county where your husband live prior to his death.

For the Illinois property, it depends on whether you owned the property as joint tenants, tenants by the entirety, or tenants in common. If joint tenants or tenants by the entirety, you may not need to do anything. If tenants in common, it would depend on whether he had will. You should contact Wisconsin attorneys regarding the Wisconsin property.

I am sorry for your loss. Concerning Illinois, there are different forms of property ownership. Usually, spouses own property as Tenants by the Entirety or Joint Tenants, each of which involves survivorship, meaning that you succeed to the ownership by virtue of that form of ownership. Otherwise, property can be owned as Tenants in Common, which would not provide the survivorship attribute, meaning your husband's interest would pass through his estate. If he had a will, then you would need to review the will. If he did not have a will, then likely it would be 1/2 the estate to you, 1/2 to be divided by the children (or any descendants of a deceased child).

If you did survive to the property by virtue of the ownership designation, you can either leave the real estate record as it is and your husband's interest that is of record can be dealt with later or you can record the death certificate with a Joint Tenancy Affidavit to clear his name off ahead of time.

Regardless the circumstances, you should prepare an estate plan to address what is to happen to the property hereafter. It will save money in the long run. As part of the process, the attorney can review the real estate record with you and final decisions can be made.

As far as Wisconsin, you should consult an attorney there or repost your question using the Wisconsin property's zip code. Likely, the answers will be similar, but there are slight variations state to state.