Location: Texas
My friend passed away suddenly in a car accident, survived by his only daughter (teenager) and his ex-wife with whom my friend had a good relationship and was raising the daughter together. He didn’t have any other family in the US, and only a sibling in another country.
He didn’t have a will.
My friend had a well paying job and a mortgage on a house. I don’t think that he had any other debt. I believe he had life insurance through work.
It has been 4-5 months since the accident and we are completely lost and don’t know what to do.
We haven’t talked to the bank about his mortgage because we are worried that they will take the house. His ex wife and daughter don’t want to keep this house but of course they don’t want to lose what had already been put in it.
We did contact a lawyer a couple months ago, but they dropped the ball on our case for over 2 months. They only started hastily moving after we sent them an angry email. We don’t receive any guidance or advice from them only a court date, where we are hoping to find out what to do next.
This doesn’t seem right to me and feels like there should be a process to this, we simply don’t know the right things to do and the doors to knock on. This is probably not purely legal advice, but please share your knowledge.
Comments
> and feels like there should be a process to this
The process is called probate. it’s for when someone dies. The daughter will be beneficiary. A probate attorney can help. The ex-wife should probably lead the charge since her child is beneficiary but anyone can apply with the court.
I’m sorry for your loss. There is a process. Your friend’s estate is in probate, which means a court must settle it as he left no directives. That’s likely the court date. With the only heir a minor, it is likely her mother will be the legal representative of the estate. Get the ex wife with the attorney and take a step back. If it feels like you can’t do anything more, it’s because you cannot.
https://guides.sll.texas.gov/probate#:~:text=Probate%20is%20the%20legal%20process,have%20to%20go%20through%20probate.
You’re not the next of kin and you’re not family, so there’s not much you can do besides encouraging the ex-wife and daughter to look into the probate, ideally with the help of an attorney.
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