My husband owns property in greece that is not in my name. What are my rights to that property in case he dies, and how do I go about claimi...

Question

My husband owns property in greece that is not in my name. What are my rights to that property in case he dies, and how do I go about claiming it?

Answer

Why are you asking an NC attorney? I do not mean to be rude, sarcastic or funny here. For divorce law purposes (I know, your question is about death, not divorce but bear with me please) the court could make all kinds of orders but as a practical matter, the property is in Greece and unless you transferred the US court order to Greece (this could get expensive real quick like), any such orders would not be likely to be enforced. It is more likely that your husband would be awarded the Greek property as part of his spousal share of assets and the value thereof can be taken into account with the division of the rest of the assets or in alimony.

As far as death goes, NC law depends on if your husband has a will and what it says. If there is no will, then a spouse generally gets 1/3rd to 1/2 of the total net assets depending on if there are any biological/adopted children of your spouse. If he has no children and no will and is survived by you, then all would pass to you.

Once again, the property is in Greece not NC. I have no idea about Grecian inheritance laws and whether they would honor US law. I also do not know if there are children or if your husband has a will and what else you own. So whether you would have any claim to the Greek property can only be answered with a "it depends" because there are circumstances you do not divulge.

Really, the person you need to be discussing this all with is not a lawyer on a public forum but your husband. You and he need to decide where your assets will go upon death and you and he will each need estate planning documents. You need to decide what the best thing for the Greek property would be. Your husband may also need a Greek will to cover Greek assets - I don't know but that is a matter for your husband and you to discuss and for your husband to talk over with a Greek probate or real estate attorney.

I do wills/trusts/estate planning, but this sounds like it is going to be complicated here. Depending on the value of your assets, your husband may want to seek out an attorney who specializes in cross-border estate planning.