Are half siblings entitled to anything left to someone when their parents weren’t married that long?
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Are half siblings entitled to anything left to someone when their parents weren’t married that long?
The family’s grandparents built a home and one of the daughters lived there, she was married for a short time and had a child, her husband left them when the child was very young. When she died she left the house to her daughter. Now she has died and the house has been left to the 10 cousins.The 10 cousins now find out the cousin who died has half siblings from her father who left her. Does those siblings have any claim to anything? They never were in contact with anyone in the family, nobody knew about them until now.
Asked on December 23, 2017 under Estate Planning, Kentucky
Answers:
M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
I am so sorry for your loss. First, I am assuming that the daughter and her husband were properly divorced. And if this lawyer can not answer your question then find another. It seems to me under the intestacy statute in Kentucky that the half-siblings will inherit over the cousins. I think, though, that you should ask for proof of "consanguity" - that they are blood related. Get help soon. Good luck.
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1. to his children and their descendants (descendants take the share of their deceased parents); if there are none, 2. to his father and mother; if one is deceased, to the survivor; if there is no father or mother, 3. to his brothers and sisters and their descendants; (half-brothers and half-sisters and their descendants inherit only onehalf as much as those of the whole blood); if none, 4. to the husband or wife of the intestate; if none, 5. one share shall pass to the paternal and the other to the maternal kindred in the following order: (a) the grandfather and grandmother equally, if one is deceased, it shall go to the survivor; if both are deceased, (b) to the uncles and aunts and their descendants; if there are none, (c) to the great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers; if none, (d) to the brothers and sisters of the grandfathers and grandmothers; and 6. if there is no kindred to one of the parents as described in (5), the whole descends to the kindred of the other. If there is neither paternal nor maternal kindred, the whole descends to the kindred of the spouse."
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