Father recently passed, sibling wants to give his Mineral rights to another family member. I am in the dark about everything and sibling wont tell me what our fathers wishes were. First a trust and a will then no will then no trust I called the county courthouse in the county he passed they have no will and a trust is a secret that my sibling keeps. it has been 2 months since the passing. I believe sibling is all gain and I am out by siblings control. The Minerals are from our Mother who passed in 2001. My dads portion I thought would by my guess be split 50/50 between us 2. There was a spouse of less than 2 years unfortunately who may have had her own game plan this was a nursing home bride as they both lived in assisted living. She packed up and moved somewhere else. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation? I may never find out as my sibling is not telling me anything but the siblings examples they use sound like what that sibling is doing. Do to the lack of information I may never if I had anything coming know about it. Mean sibling-
Was he legally re-married? If so, the "nursing home bride" would have a claim as well.
Your sibling can't legally do anything with your portion unless they have some legal court appointed authority over the estate. Also, the trust couldn't be "Secret" as there would need to be something filed 1) creating the trust, and 2) transferring the ownership of minerals to said trust.
Trusts are not, normally, filed/recorded at the courthouse. But, IF any properties or minerals were deeded into the Trust, the deeded documents are filed at the county courthouse they are located. Check under your sibling's name too.
As an added thought, you might want to check the marriage license records, under both names.
TexasFile.com is an online courthouse for all Texas counties.
Cover all corners and stay "up" on it.
Good luck,
Pat
It always helps when you tell what state the minerals are in, as each have different laws
Ms. Malone
If there is any property conveyed to a trust, a memorandum of the trust agreement is often filed as well. If it isn't, it should have been filed.
You can contact the county court records where the minerals are located and ask for deed search if you know the what the land sections etc.... are. The other thing we did when my sibling was not cooperating with the rest of us, we contacted the oil company that held the lease directly and did it without the personal representative. Start with finding your mothers deed, then the transfer to your father and then provide the oil company with fathers deed and death certificate.
Unfortunately you are going to need your own attorney to advise you. You have 90 days to contest everything once a probate is started. You may or may not receive paperwork advising you the probate was started. The attorney my sibling used said "Oh I'm very sorry, I mailed it, sorry you didn't get it." He hand delivered it to me on the 90th day. Don't wait, you are already far behind your sibling. Also, google the "Theory of Leche"
You need legal advice with someone with experience digging into and checking the records.
Assuming that the facts are correct:
Mother dies intestate, father inherits 50%, her children split remaining 50%.
Father remarries then dies intestate, new wife gets 50% his children split 50%.
If there was a properly funded trust you should be able to search county court records for Certification of Trust or here in Oklahoma usually called a Memorandum of Trust. You may be able to do a name search to find transfers assuming that you know the counties were the property was held.
You may be able to file an affidavit of heirship in those counties as an added means of protection.
It is also good to do a check of unclaimed properties with your state's treasurer under both parents' names.
I think I'm getting some wrong info from the State of Kansas Tax hotline. I use a highly reputable and expensive Accounting firm to review my entire tax returns. When I first inherited oil and gas interests and prepared my Tax Returns for the first time, I reported the income from those interests to Kansas, (I don't live there), and also reported it to State/Minnesota income, and on my federal return. The accountants said that I don't have a working interest, don't own the land, and don't owe income taxes to KS. The checks I get from oil and gas companies are after tax. It is income to me as a resident of MN, and I report that income to MN and include it with all other income received (I am retired now, so it's not much. ) I file a joint return with my husband who is now retired. I pay State tax to MN. The person on the phone said I have to pay it to Kansas. I don't think this is right, is it?
No way! And, for what reason? To have our SS number, birth date, address, etc. made available to the public? Not! We did use a Certification of Trust to transfer ownership of CDs, stocks, and open the Trust bank accounts ... with all information being kept private in the respective institutions. At least, that is what we were told.
Thank you.
Pat
Jordan Murray said:
Ms. Malone
If there is any property conveyed to a trust, a memorandum of the trust agreement is often filed as well. If it isn't, it should have been filed.
You have already been given excellent suggestions previously, but I just wanted to also add that you might want to consider (1) checking the county courthouse probate court for whatever city your mother died in to see if there is a probate file and if there is one, order copies of it or go to the courthouse in person so you can look at the paperwork in the file, as there may be a mention of or documents there verifying the existence of the mineral rights as one of the assets in the estate, and (2) if you retain the services of an attorney, ask your attorney to send your sibling a letter on your behalf by certified mail that asks if you are the beneficiary in a trust that your attorney is requesting a copy of the trust, and accounting statements, for you. You should not write this letter yourself since the sibling may tend to ignore it--he will be more likely to respond if the request comes from an attorney, and in most states the request must be made in WRITING, not orally.