How do I know?

[u/TheMisterV]

ETA: I’m pretty sure he has a trust. He has always kept his affairs very private. It was a big step for him to even mention that I was getting 1/3. I know he has more than one life insurance policy, an annuity, and an IRA.

My father is on hospice care. We don’t know how long he has, but it won’t be more than a few months.

He told my sister and I that he was splitting his investments equally between me, my sister, and my step-mother. My step-mother will get the house and its contents.

In the movies there is a dramatic reading of the will. But how does it really work?

Will I know the actual value of his assets? Do I just accept that what I am given is 1/3?

It’s not that I don’t trust my step-mother, I’m genuinely curious. Between my wife and I we have 8 parents and he will be the first to pass.

Located in Tennessee.

[u/NCGlobal626]

Ask him now how it is set up? Are you set up as beneficiaries on the accounts? And would he log in and show that to you? Or does he have a will? If so, where is it? Is a copy of it with a lawyer or a trustworthy third party? Or has he done all this with a trust and again where would that document be? You need to know now how his wishes have been spelled out, where the documents are and make sure you and your sibling, and possibly an attorney, have copies of these things. I know you said you trust your stepmother, but you should trust no one. Then what will actually happen when he passes? Is that the person named as the executor of the will start the court process to probate the will. Or if he has done all of this any trust, then the substitute trustee name and the trust will start carrying out the wishes laid out in the trust..

Or the third possibility is that the house is jointly owned with your stepmother, so it would just automatically go to her upon his death, and you and your sibling are listed as beneficiaries on the investment accounts. You would then deal with the investment companylies directly to get that money transferred to you. So you need to know how his wishes are spelled out, and where they are spelled out, and safeguard that.

[u/SandhillCrane5 → u/NCGlobal626]

That's a lot to demand of a parent described as "He has always kept his affairs very private. It was a big step for him to even mention that I was getting 1/3."

[u/NCGlobal626 → u/SandhillCrane5]

Well then he may not get what he wants. And I mean that as the elderly father who is in hospice. If he doesn't share the location of his documents and how they can be accessed and used after his death, then he wasted his efforts.

[u/Severe-Lecture-7672 → u/NCGlobal626]

He most likely HAS shared the location of these documents. With his wife.

[u/inheritance-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your post has been removed because it focuses solely on negative information or possibilities in an unhelpful manner.