Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, my grandmother passed away in july. Her heir was my uncle. He just passed away. He was unmarried when my grandmother died, but quickly married when he found out he was dying. Does his new "wife" inherit my grandmother's estate?


Asked on 1/26/14, 5:52 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Miriam Jacobson Retired from practice of law

Inheritance of your grandmother's estate depends on whether or not she had a will. The same is true about your uncle's estate. In both cases, the wills, if they each had one, or the intestate succession law, if they didn't, control who inherits their respective estates.

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Answered on 1/27/14, 1:32 pm

You do not indicate when uncle died exactly. Many wills have a survivorship clause in there which provides that a beneficiary must outlive the decedent by the survival period in order to inherit. For example, if grandmother died July 1 and had a will with a survivorship clause saying that uncle must survive her by 90 days and uncle dies on October 1st or later, he can inherit. If he dies before September 29th he cannot.

If there is a survivorship clause and uncle did not meet the terms, then you have to read grandmother's will to see who would inherit.

If, as is more common, there was no survivorship requirement in grandmother's will, then uncle would inherit. Since he has now died, his estate would inherit his share of grandmother's assets. If uncle had a will, then his assets will pass as directed in his will. If uncle died without a will, I am sorry but his wife and any biological or adopted children of your uncle would inherit. If there are no children then wife gets it all.

I have assumed that grandmother had a will since you said your uncle was her heir. If for some reason your grandmother did not have a will and had no living spouse at the time of her death, then her property would pass in equal shares to her children, one of whom I assume was your uncle. My answer is otherwise unchanged - your uncle's share would pass either per his will (I hope he bothered to make one since he knew he was dying and he got married) or via the intestacy law.

The only possible out here would be if the uncle and his wife had a pre-nuptial agreement whereby they waived any inheritance or right to administer the other's estate in the event of death. In that case, your uncle's share would pass to his children and if none, to his siblings or their children.

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Answered on 1/27/14, 10:10 pm


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