Smart Money

Stepchild seeks a share of estate

By Bruce Williams

DEAR BRUCE: My step­fa­ther recently passed away. He mar­ried my mom when I was 10, and I didn’t have much con­tact with my real dad. His wife had died of can­cer, and he was left with his two daugh­ters, who lived with us.

We are all grown adults, and I do have a sis­terly rela­tion­ship with my step­sis­ters. My mom died sev­eral years ago, so now there’s just the three of us.

My step­fa­ther left a trust for my two sis­ters, not me. One sis­ter thinks the estate should be divided equally three ways, while the other just gave me some of the money and said that’s it. Can I be cut out of an equal share of the estate like that? — Reader, via email

DEAR READER: Under the law, a dece­dent has no oblig­a­tion to leave money to any­one other than a spouse. Any child, adopted or nat­ural, can be left out of a will, trust or other document.

For what­ever rea­son, your step­fa­ther chose to leave you out, and his daugh­ters have no oblig­a­tion to share. I don’t see where you have any legal rights to any of this money unless you can demon­strate that undo pres­sure was placed on your step­fa­ther shortly before his demise or that he suf­fered loss of fac­ulty, which you have not implied. It’s unlikely this is the case.

DEAR BRUCE: I would like to know how to find a com­pany to increase my term life insur­ance by another $100,000. There are so many com­pa­nies out there; how do I com­pare them and not get taken? I don’t know where to look and find the best deal. — Reader, via email

DEAR READER: There are quite a few life insur­ance bro­kers that will take into account your sit­u­a­tion (age, income, etc.) and guar­an­tee that they find you the low­est prices for term insur­ance. You can find these bro­kers online, and they also adver­tise in news­pa­pers and on TV.

There are well over 1,000 com­pa­nies writ­ing term insur­ance, and the pre­mi­ums can vary like crazy from one to the other. There is money to be saved; just take the time to shop wisely.

(Send ques­tions to bruce@brucewilliams.com or to Smart Money, P.O. Box 7150, Hud­son, FL 34674. Ques­tions of gen­eral inter­est will be answered in future columns. Owing to the vol­ume of mail, per­sonal replies can­not be provided.)

Posted by Guest 2 Columnist on Nov 19 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.