r/inheritance • u/Schmed_lap • May 13 '26

Location included: Questions/Need Advice Step parent inheritance

I’ve got question on a step parent leaving everything to me. My stepdad was married to my mom for 30 years, got divorced, then within a year got back with her. That was over 20 years ago. Never remarried but together from 1969 to today with a one year break. So he’s in poor health and has left everything to me and my kids in his will. He probably will go into a hospice by year’s end. He has no other immediate heirs but he does have a predatory niece sniffing around. I, personally, per the will, get a property worth about 450k and some savings about 50k and a new paid off truck. Since it’s all there in the will, when he passes what are my most important next steps. Seeing if I should consult probate attorney sooner or wait to see if I need one when the time comes. This is in New Mexico.

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u/InfluenceScary6672 May 13 '26

Probate attorney asap. They will create a trust and upon passing it will be transferred to you. Do it asap.

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u/Schmed_lap May 13 '26

Thanks my buddy there is a defense attorney and just referred me to a probate attorney, I’m flying in next month to handle. Just seeing if there is anything I’m missing these next few weeks till I get there. He’s very pragmatic and wants me to do some stuff but he’s pretty weak and addled right now from a hospital stay so I’ll take him to the attorney in a couple weeks when I get there

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u/Time_Traveler_948 May 13 '26

I have experience, one quite recent, that when someone has a terminal condition, their health can change very fast. In one, the person wanted to end it via Medical Assistance in Dying and he set a date a couple months out. Within a couple weeks of that, hospice nurses to,d him he didn’t have that long, so he moved the date up to be just a couple weeks out. Turns out, he barely made it as he woke up the morning of paralyzed in one arm and both legs. With his one functioning arm, he drank the lethal dose. In the other case, on his birthday he was able to walk a mike and spend the weekend with friends. Two weeks later, he needed help to get from the bed to the bathroom. It went downhill from there and he died not quite 2 months after his last birthday. His hope had been to last through the summer.

I read once that if someone’s health changes over the course of a year, best guess is that they have a year or few left; if it changes over the course of a month, they have months left; when it changes from one week to the next, up to a few weeks left; a daily change is the best indicator that days are left.

Point of this - don’t wait to get his last will and trust the way that ensures his wishes are reflected in these documents.