Search state government database for unclaimed property
For a thorough search, you should check the state government database for any state in which the deceased lived or did business. You can find state databases by searching “unclaimed funds database” and including the name of the state you're looking for.
Consulting with the Executor or Attorney of the Deceased
If you're a potential heir, contacting the executor will provide insight into the estate's financial holdings and ensure you're informed of any assets left for you and on the necessary steps to claim your inheritance.
If they used a Will, then it is the executor who should be notifying you, generally within a few months of the death. If they used a Trust, then it is the trustee who should be notifying you. The timeline is much shorter. California laws, for example, require that beneficiaries are notified within 60 days of the death.
Typically it will take around 6 to 12 months for beneficiaries to start receiving their inheritance, but this varies depending on the complexity of the estate and possible delays at the Probate Registry, which have been widely reported in the media.
Simple estates might be settled within six months. Complex estates, those with a lot of assets or assets that are complex or hard to value can take several years to settle. If an estate tax return is required, the estate might not be closed until the IRS indicates its acceptance of the estate tax return.
An heir can claim their inheritance anywhere from six months to three years after a decedent passes away, depending on where they live. Every state and county jurisdiction sets different rules about an heir's ability to claim their inheritance.
It's important for beneficiaries to keep in mind the ways an executor cannot override a beneficiary. For example, an executor cannot change beneficiaries' inheritances or withhold their inheritances unless the will has expressly granted them the authority to do so.
Inheritance hijacking is the term that describes a type of theft. It can occur when one or more people steal an inheritance that was intended to be left to someone else. This type of theft happens more often than you think. It can happen when someone steals assets not left to them in a Will or Trust.
Check With the County Courthouse
Contact the probate courts of EACH county in which the decedent lived throughout their adult life to ask if they have the will on file—even if it was filed many years ago.
By analyzing a pedigree, we can determine genotypes, identify phenotypes, and predict how a trait will be passed on in the future. The information from a pedigree makes it possible to determine how certain alleles are inherited: whether they are dominant, recessive, autosomal, or sex-linked.
Heir: An heir is a person legally entitled to inherit a portion of the estate of a deceased person, typically in the absence of a will. Heirs are usually close family members, such as children or spouses.
People who commit inheritance theft, whether it's an executor, trustee, beneficiary or someone else, may be subject to both criminal and civil penalties. For example, a trustee who embezzles money from someone's estate can be charged with a felony or misdemeanor, depending on state laws.
Under Section 9050 in the California Probate Code, a personal representative is supposed to let the known heirs and beneficiaries know within 60 days from the first evidence gathering in the probate process in California.
If your situation meets the required elements for a legal claim, you absolutely can. In California, intentionally interfering with another person's expected inheritance is a tort (a civil wrong, which allows a person to sue another person in court, assuming the elements are met).
If you are the beneficiary of a trust, the California Probate Code requires trustees to notify you within 60 days of the settlor's death. Sometimes the trust settlor will also notify any disinherited heirs as well to avoid any ambiguity.
There is a waiting period that has to be factored into the process as well. WESA imposes a 210-day waiting period during which an executor must not distribute the estate without beneficiary consent or a court order.
You may receive inheritance money by being named in a will. In this case, you will go through a probate process to divide the assets. In other cases, assets pass to heirs like a spouse or children. The court appoints an administrator to divide the money and other assets following state laws.
A Beneficiary need not know about a trust of which he or she is a Beneficiary, and neither the Settlor nor the Trustee (if the Settlor waived the requirement for the Trustee to keep the beneficiaries informed) needs to inform the Beneficiary of the existence of the trust; but if the beneficiary finds out about it and ...
Once the court receives the petition, it will set a date for the initial probate proceeding, which is where an executor or administrator of the estate will be appointed to oversee the probate process and make distributions of estate assets to beneficiaries or heirs upon its completion.