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Dear Moneyist,
My 72-year-old fiancé died unexpectedly of a heart attack while alone. I have known this guy for 12 years, and we were in an on-and-off relationship. We had been engaged for four years, but due to my working and his living 30 miles away, we never really lived together completely.
I am a cancer survivor and have very limited energy, but I still work full time, so we agreed that I would stay with him on weekends. Our arrangement worked but because of COVID-19, my weekend visits stopped as we wanted to protect each other. In the last five months, I saw him three times.
Then he died alone of a heart attack. His estranged brother is his executor. His brother lives in another state. My fiancé would always assure me that he would take care of me. But his brother refuses to tell me anything, as he said he does not know me. I do not know for sure if my fiancé left anything.
My fiancé’s house is cordoned off by the coroner. I do not have any personal belongings in his house because we once broke our engagement, and at that time I made sure that I did not leave anything there. I hated hauling stuff if something went wrong.
We had 12 years together, and we had many ups and down. My fiancé had a lot of medical issues, and I was there for him. I am the only person in his life. He had not talked to his brother and sister for 20 years. I understand why he made his brother his executor, as he is a lawyer.
Would it be wrong for me to expect to get something from his estate? I feel like it’s not fair if he left me nothing, and the estranged brother and sister would get everything. He never saw his siblings, nephews or nieces.
How can I get a copy of a trust or will so I would know if I am there? His family didn’t care if he was dead or alive, and I was the one who was there for him. It makes me very furious thinking that he left me nothing. Our relationship was far from ideal or perfect, but at least we loved each other.
He was so disappointed about this whole COVID thing. Do I have any right to anything from him?
Heartbroken in California
Dear Heartbroken,
There are four aspects to your letter: The logistical, the legal, the ethical, and the emotional. The latter two are more difficult to deal with than others. Firstly, I’m sorry to hear that your fiancé passed away under these circumstances. It’s difficult for people when loved ones are sick or die during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the restrictions on hospitals and funerals. They don’t make it easier.
Let’s assume your fiancé didn’t leave his will lying around the house and he actually had it notarized and left it in the possession of his lawyer, who would then file it to the probate court in the county where your fiancé passed away. You should be able to locate it online, although you may have to pay to access it. If you can’t find it, call the court. If there is a will, it may not have been filed yet.
You were not married and California does not recognize common-law marriage. But even so, you were not cohabiting and, although you had the intention of getting married, there does not seem to be any evidence (tax returns, letters, holiday cards, etc.) that suggest you regarded yourselves as a married couple. Most importantly, you did not live together, and you had no belongings there.
According to Berenji & Associates, a law firm in Beverly Hills and L.A., an implied agreement of marriage is tricky to enforce. A court would look at the following questions: “Why the couple never married. If the reason was to avoid the legal community property division requirements, it may indicate that no implied agreement existed. Whether the couple used joint credit cards.”
Other issues that might imply you saw yourselves as a de facto married couple: “Whether the couple used joint or separate bank accounts to hold their individual earnings and assets. Whether one partner was the primary bill-payer or if both were separately responsible for their own expenses. Whether title to property was taken individually or together.”
Your fiancé’s relationship with his family is none of your affair. They may have special memories as children, even if they drifted apart as adults. Speculating about how little they may or may not have cared for him is a spaghetti junction of emotions that has no beginning and no end. You could be driving around that for years to come. It’s better to find the exit to your new life now.
His family members are his legal heirs. It doesn’t feel right that they should inherit his estate, but if you were not included in his will (assuming there was a will), and if your name is not on the deed of the house, you have little choice but to thank your fiancé for the good times you had together, appreciate the good (and even bad) times that you can learn from, and take heart in the 12 years you had together.
You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions related to coronavirus at qfottrell@marketwatch.com
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Coronavirus update
As of Saturday, COVID-19 had infected 28,511,215 people worldwide, a figure that mostly does not account for asymptomatic cases, and killed 916,040. The U.S. still has the world’s highest number of COVID-19 cases (6,445,289 and 193,016 deaths), followed by India (4,659,984), Brazil (4,282,164) and Russia (1,053,663), according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA, +0.47% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.05% closed up modestly Friday, but the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.60% ended lower, and had its worst week since March. Doubts about traction for further fiscal stimulus from Washington and the right-sizing expectations about a vaccine are likely two factors currently concerning investors.
