I have inherited mineral interest from a life estate after my father who was a life tenet passed away. It was a rather large estate in scope of mineral interest owned spread through 17 states and over 150 counties. I am receiving payments currently from some land that is producing in counties that we have filed affidavit of heir-ship in. I am wondering though what would be the best way for me to find out what mineral interest I own is under lease and what is not under lease. The probate has been a long drawn out process and information is not easily known because my father's wife has kept any paper work that may have given me more information about what is and is not leased. I would like to find out what lands are not leased so I can see if there is any land not under lease in areas where there is current activity.
Who was executor of estate? Has he/she given you an accounting of the estate? Have you asked to be allowed to copy the relevant papers and pay any costs? If your father had a life estate, then most likely he was beneficiary of a trust and how was trat established? If it was through an estate, you can usually get copies of all the probate records even if has been a long time. If trust was established during grandparent lifetime, then there wpuld have been filings in the counties. Do you have list of counties? Then you can start with on-line sites and look for deeds out of or into your grandparent or original grantor of life estate. If there was a trust, who was trustee and can you ask for information?
I have accounting of the estate as far as where the money is coming from oil companies paying into the estate it still doesn’t tell me what tracks of land are under lease. I do have a list of counties and will look to see what states are online, that is a good place to start thank you. I may contact the different oil companies and ask for all property descriptions they have under lease. It is just a really big job, because of how many acres there are. Thank you for the advice though it cleared my head in where to get started.
Do whatever you can to find an estate inventory, even in prior generations if it was inherited. Having a good inventory is the starting place for managing scattered minerals.