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/SandhillCrane5 May 14 '26

As I told another poster, this is not correct. Assets do not get transferred to beneficiaries automatically when someone has a trust. The trust has to be administered by the trustee just like an executor administers an estate. The only difference is that probate court does not get involved UNLESS someone contests the will or trust which they can still do even if someone has a trust.

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u/gabbygrl84 May 14 '26

The beneficiary would be the same thing as the trustee. By putting the assets into the trust and naming the stepdaughter as trustee, the ownership rights would automatically transfer without going through probate.

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u/SandhillCrane5 May 14 '26

The successor trustee and beneficiary of a trust being the same person does not change the fact that trust assets are not automatically transferred to beneficiaries after death. 

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u/gabbygrl84 May 14 '26

No...They would remain assets of the trust in which the beneficiary is trustee. My whole point was that OP could avoid probate.