From the Office of Eva Clement, Attorney at Law, Asheville, NC 28801. All rights reserved. You are free to share posts from this blog as long as attribution data at bottom of post is included.
North Carolina is one of many states that gives married couples an elective share of a deceased spouse’s estate. This means that even if you have written your spouse out of your will, he or she can still apply to receive a certain share of your estate after your death. The rules on how this share is calculated changed dramatically on October 1, 2013. The new rule applies to everyone with a death date of 10/1/2013 and after, regardless of when the marriage occurred.
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A will is a legal document that directs what happens to a person’s assets and property after their death. In North Carolina, the estate of an individual who dies without a will is distributed according to the NC Intestate Succession Act. Intestate probate is more expensive and time consuming than the probate process that occurs when a valid will is in place, and often produces unfortunate situations that would not have been the wishes of the deceased.
Many North Carolina families have lost land that had been theirs for generations because no wills were in place at the time of the owners’ deaths. Under the NC Intestate Succession Act, intestate property is divided up among legal heirs according to the type and number of surviving relatives the deceased left behind. The list of legal heirs may include a spouse, parents, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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