Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

If you are the executor of the estate then you do not have to serve. If you do not wish to do it, then you can renounce your right tol serve as executor. If you do that, then see who the will names as the successor executor and that person can petition for probate. If there are no other successors, then anyone can petition to serve and it could be either of your step-father's children.

I fail to see the connection between you serving as executor of your step-father's estate and your mother's divorce from the your-father. Her divorce and separation does not revoke any dispositions appointing you as executor or any bequests made to you. Consequently, I do not know why the lawyer said that you are or are not a "party" to the estate. However, since the lawyers had the advantage of looking at the documents and I don't, I would have to defer to the lawyer who believes you are still a "party." Frankly, I don't know how you can be "party" to an estate. Either you are an executor or a beneficiary or both under a will or you are not.

Why do you want the headache of administering an estate for a man to whom you are not related? Other than a small commission, are you the beneficiary of something under the will? You being a beneficiary would not change if you renounced only your right to serve. If you wish, I think you could renounce your right to serve and let the successor executor named in the will take over. If there is no other successor, then either of the man's sons could become the administrator of the estate as I noted.

I am not sure what has to be straightened out. Since your mother and step-father had divided their property already, any successor executor/administrator would have to pay the bills owed by your step-father and distribute his separate property or share of the marital property. I don't know what your step-father owned or how it was titled. While death would cause a divorce action to abate if your mother was not divorced, if a separation agreement was properly drafted, then any provisions in the will in favor of your mother would be revoked. What this means is that the court would pretend that your mother had died before your step-father and any of your step-father's property would be distributed to whoever the will names as a secondary beneficiary. If the will is silent, then your step-father's property would pass to yourstep-father's biological or adopted children (but not step-children) under the intestacy laws.