What order is inheritance distributed?

Question

My Aunt, my mothers sister died. My mom is dead. Their younger sister is alive. I am the only decendent next in line. After me are my two daughters. There are no other members in the family, and have never been any. There is no will. One bank account is in everyones name. One is in the dead aunt's name/or/the live aunt. The account is In Trust For: myself and my two children. There is a house, stocks, etc... in only the dead aunts name. We live in New York. How will the estate be distributed? And can the live aunt destroy the ITF accounts if her name was on it, or is she just a caretaker? Thanks.

Answer 1

Contact an estate attorney NOW.  Depending on the TYPE of joint ownership, the account in 'every one's' name may AUTOMATICALLY belong the the survivors without even being part of ANY ONE'S inheritance.  In any case, the exact law depends on where each person lived at the time of death.

Technically, the trust account was NOT your aunts.  It belonged to the trust.  That is assuming she actually created a trust.  If she simply put the words in the account name, the account IS NOT in trust and should be treated like anything else SHE owned.