Pecan Hill, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Ohio only recognizes a persons matrimonial status to be 1. Married or 2. Single. As long as he was married to your stepmother, she qualifies as his surviving spouse and is entitled to 1/3rd of his estate. However, if they had a written or court ordered separation, that takes away her inheritance rights, that would void her rights to any part of his estate.

If you provide the bank with a certified copy of your letter of office that should be sufficient to gain access to any bank account held in your husband's name. If the bank account was a joint account the account would not be in your husband's estate. It would be owned by the surviving joint tenant. The death certificate would give them authority to turn the account over to the surviving joint tenant. As the executrix you can require the bank to provide you with information on all of his accounts, including the title on all of his accounts.

It may be customary for marital partners to arrange their financial affairs for the care and support of each other upon death. A trust, however, being one of several tools by which to do so, may direct that none of its assets be awarded to a spouse and that, upon her death, all of its assets be divided among his children only with nothing going to her children.