OGM Rights in Coal County

Law & Legal
#1

My mother has OGM rights in Oklahoma. We just went to have her will re-done and the attorney said that because of her mineral rights, we need to hire an independent appraiser in the area (we live in another State) and an attorney to represent her to find out the fair market value of her interests. I am one of six children. She wants all six of us to inherit equal shares in these rights upon her death. At the moment, wells are being built on the property (we do not own the land). She received an initial lease payment four years ago and were told within this last year that the company is just waiting for the price of oil to rise (it already has) before they will start drilling. To date, she has not received any royalties.

The attorney told us that because we were told that the estimated dollar amount of her interests (many, many millions), that upon her death, we as her children have 90 days to pay the inheritance taxes (millions that we don't have).

My question is, she wants to know if she can convey her interests to her children prior to her death to avoid this. We are lost and haven't a clue as to where to find this out.

Can anyone help?

Thank you in advance.

#2

I'm not an attorney, but of course your mother could sell her property to whoever she wanted. It may be that $10 and other valuable considerations could do the trick. I'd ask my lawyer. My thoughts on this are that your mother already conveyed 80%? of her minerals to the well operator. If that's the case you should be able to buy the other 20% at the same price. 20% goes into 80% 4 times divided 6 ways = 1/24th. If each of you paid the equal of 1/24th of the bonus check you would be paying an amount equal to what the operator paid for his greater interest. You could even owe mom the money, evidently. I've had oil co drafts bounce but they recorded the lease and thought they could pay me when they drilled the well. If it's good enough for them it should be good enough for you, just be sure to pay mom a $10 binder that she cashes. Bests, RW Kennedy

#3

Thank you so much. I don’t know about the percentage already conveyed - will have to look at her contract again. Even if that were the case, apparently several family members have talked to the company rep that sent her the lease check and he estimated that her share alone is approximately $1.2 billion over the life of the wells. Who really knows. If that’s the case, we wouldn’t have enough money to buy her out. But, I thank you so much for your advice. I don’t think her attorney really knows that much about it so will probably have to talk to someone else in the near future.

#4