Family Dispute

[LostnConfused]

My brother in law has pass away recently and before he passed away him and my mother in law took out the equity out of the house to pay off his and his wife's debt. Let me say this..my sister in law is not legally married to my brother in law..but since they have lived in the state of South Carolina, they were recognized as common law married, so to my understanding the state of North Carolina has to recognize them as common law. So who is solely responsible for the debt? And if that money was use to pay off their debt, ie their car, bikes, etc..could the bank not take the car and bike to pay off the loan? He then had two life insurance policy out on himself..one for my mother in law and the other one for his wife and kids. The first policy stated that my mother in law was the primary beneficiary where his wife was the secondary, is she allowed to received any of the funds since he didn't specified how much percentage each was going to get? And on top of that..how does fraud issues work? Please advise...seriously in need of help.

 

[calalily]

Confused

Your post is very confusing. Do you mean they took out a second mortgage on the house or used the equity as collateral for a loan? Or did they refinance the house and use the equity to pay off debts? Whoever is on the title to to house is responsible for the debt so if it was your brother in-law/mother in-law on the house, now that the brother in-law passed the mother in-law would be responsible for the house/loan debt or whatever it was but the legal wife may be responsible for the deceased husbands half. When you say secondary on the insurance I am not sure what you mean. For example my husband gets the life insurance when I die but if we both die then the secondary beneficary, our sons, get the life insurance 50/50. The insurance agent or executor of the estate can tell you for sure, what the insurance policy states. Two people as primary: then the split is 50/50 unless otherwise stated. But your sister in-law has her policy for her and the kids so why does she want a piece of the mother in-laws? If your sisiter in-law is recognized in your state as the legal wife, then she is responsible for her husband's debts. She may be responsible for half of the loan/house debt even if the mother in-law was on the title/loan. Each state has its own laws. Fraud is huge. I have no idea what you are referring to when you ask about fraud. What are the issues? It sounds like you need to hire a lawyer to sort out all the issues and questions pertaining to what is going on in your family. Also you call everone in-law so what is your relationship to the people involved?

 

[LostnConfused]

Thanks

Thanks for the response..