Greedy Step mother

[kushmania]

Hi,
First I would like to thank your team for this helpful portal.

My problem: My Father In-law died a couple of months ago. He left behind two children. My wife is one of them. He also left behind a wife who was married to him for two months. Unfortunately he did not have a will and that brings me to the problem. The two children and step mother signed to evenly distribute the adminstration rights and the step mother is bieng very uncooperative about every aspect. My question is, Is the step mother (he's wife) entitled to her share under pennsylvania Law being that she was only married to him for two months? Is there a way to see that the children of the desceased are not ending up with a small percantage of what is moraly theirs? Given that he was their father for 29 years and only her husband for two months.

[Anonymous]

If the marriage is valid and there is no will, the estate will pass in a manner consistent with Pennsyvania's laws of intestate succession. I believe under Pennsylvania law, given that your father-in-law presumably had no children with his last wife, that would mean that his current spouse is entitled to one half of his estate, with the remainder of the estate to be divided equally among the children. If the children wish to challenge this, they would likely be best served by consulting with an attorney about the possibility of challenging the validity of the marriage.

[kushmania]

thank you very much aaron, they actually got married for insurance purposes. I't was the only way he could get cheap insurance because he owned he's own business. Would this be something that could challenging the validity of the marriage?

[Anonymous]

If they married solely for insurance purposes and never lived together "as man and wife", it might be possible to challenge the validity of the marriage. Of course, that will depend heavily on state law.