A Will is effective immediately upon the death of the Grantor, and must be executed as written at that time.<\/p>\n
The Grantor cannot control any property “from beyond the grave.” <\/p>\n
As such, if a wife does not take the steps to transfer interest in a property to her chosen beneficiaries immediately upon her death, the husband is free to do with the house whatever he wishes after that time, with full ownership interest in the property.<\/p>\n
For clarity, if the stepmother transfers her interest to her husband through the Will with the hope that the husband will later transfer the house to their children upon his death — or if the house was held jointly by the couple with the right of survivorship to the husband — the husband may do as he wishes with the property going forward, and is not bound by the wishes of the deceased woman’s Will.<\/p>\n
Further, if the husband re-marries and decides pass the house on to his new spouse via his own Will, or to give it to the new spouse outright before his death, or to knock it down with a bulldozer for that matter, he is free to do so without interference from the mother’s previously named beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
Simply stated: unless shares of a property transfer immediately upon the death of the stepmother to the named beneficiaries per state law and the terms of the Will, the property belongs fully to the husband; the desires stated by the stepmother in her Will are not binding upon him, nor upon any third party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Will is effective immediately upon the death of the Grantor, and must be executed as written at that time. The Grantor cannot control any property “from beyond the grave.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-last-will-and-testament-questions"],"yoast_head":"\n