I Never Received My Inheritance. Can I Call Probate Yet?

Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers the following question:

"I never received my inheritance. Can I call Probate yet?"

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Today's question is the following:

“My mother passed away November 2015. I never received my inheritance. Can I call Probate yet? My mother told me that I will be receiving a parcel of land and some cash. The will was also dated in 2015.”

Okay. So first of all if there was a will, it should have been filed with the probate office at the courthouse in the county where your mother died, was living when she died. If a probate action was opened, it should be listed online in the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system. So if you go to their website, the Wisconsin Circuit Court website, you could search party information using your mother's last name and see if a probate case has been opened. If you are a named beneficiary in the will and a probate case was open, you should have received notice of this probate proceeding.

And if no probate has been opened yet, then you should take the will to the courthouse and open that probate because if you are beneficiary in the will, that would be the way to receive inheritance.

I don't know here if a probate was opened or just was never opened and the will was later discovered or this property was discovered. But either way a probate case would be the way to get the property from your mother's estate to you.

If your mother left a will then she should have named a personal representative in the will and he would be the person in charge of administering the estate. If you know who that person is, you can check with them to see if you're named in the will and if you are named, you should be entitled to see a copy of the will. Even if you are not named in the will, if you are specifically included, if it is your mother you should have received notice when that probate action was open.

So great question and good luck to you in tracking down this inheritance and thank you for asking this question today.

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