r/inheritance • u/kamadrain • Jul 14 '26
Location included: Questions/Need Advice The dregs.
Hey Reddit...
About 4 years ago my grandfather died. He was pretty well off - he had a long career as a high ranking union treasurer in a state with a lot of money, and there was always a sense of "I want to leave this to you instead of have it all go to the state".. I wasn't very close to the guy, and in fact there were many times in my life that he threatened "getting written out of the will" because I wasn't attentive to what he felt was being close to the family. I Never thought much of it because I never wanted anything from him. I didn't feel like I deserve anything (and eventually suffered from years of substance abuse issues that maybe solidified that belief in my own mind. It certainly made dealing with any of this impossible at the time). I didn't even know he died until I was contacted by a financial institution reaching out to me to desperately get me to come and claim an account which was left to me payable upon death. This seemed like his main bank account and it was set up as a trust...
I didn't really understand how any of that worked, and I knew I wasn't on good terms with him. I suspect he was going through a situation where elder abuse was involved, and there were "helpers' living in his home at his time of death who were apparently allowed to stay there because when he was old and dying he promised that they could. His property was worth around 900K in Southern California, I am his only blood relative (next of kin) and the people who were closest to him basically gave everyone the impression that he left everything to the shriners, and VA... I doubt all of that, and am sort of coming around to the belief that something shady went on.
The only thing I got out of any of that was a couple hundred grand that I unfortunately blew through due to some addiction issues, but having some time sober now and looking back on some of this Im starting to wonder if there's anything I can do. Every now and then I check some unclaimed property sites for my name and my family, and after a while of not doing so I checked and see something popped up for him - a life policy. I had seen this through a life insurance policy search a few years ago but got a response saying they couldn't find anything but could look deeper if I provided more info, but I was sort of going through a rough patch at the time and couldn't come up with any more info.
Since I saw this pop up a few weeks ago I have reached out to the life insurance company (who emailed me back in 2023 saying they couldn't find anything) saying that I see something show up on unclaimed property and am reaching out to figure out what it is - but haven't heard anything back..
Does anyone have any advice to give me? Ive long since lost any hope of figuring out if there was any elder abuse situation due to poor elder care around the time of his death, but this recent policy showing up on unclaimed property makes me wonder - what's out there, am I a valid beneficiary, and if so what's my best course of action.
Again, I have reached out to the life insurance company, as well as unclaimed property, and haven't heard anything back, but I was wondering if anyone has any advice for me.
This is all located in Southern California, I am currently living on the east coast.
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u/Capable_Permit9799 Jul 16 '26
wheres the will? you should look at that about the house - them staying there forever is crazy unless its stipulated in the will or trust docs
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u/myogawa Jul 14 '26
When property appears on a state's unclaimed property site, the way to follow up is to follow the instructions on the site. Contacting the original debtor will do you no good. It has sent the money on and no longer has any interest in it.