[WSBAPT] potential heir - what obligation does attorney have?

[Philip N. Jones]

Yes.

Philip N. Jones
Duffy Kekel LLP
Portland, OR
pjones at duffykekel.com
(503) 853-1482 cell

On May 21, 2021, at 3:00 PM, Maren Benedetti <Maren.Benedetti at adamslawyers.com> wrote:


I have a client whose son recently died. He had very little property, a mobile home and a very small bank account. There was no Will, so everything to surviving mom. Client’s daughter is helping her and they have asked me to prepare the affidavit of inheritance for the mobile home and they were intending to gift it to the son’s long time friend and current tenant in the mobile home.

Yesterday the daughter received a text from another friend of the son who informed her that she and the brother had a child together 28 years ago but paternity was never established and there is no evidence that he ever knew about this child or met him. She provided the name of the purported child and place where he lives.

Do we have any obligation to 1) track this guy down, 2) find out if he is actually the son?

Maren Benedetti
Attorney

ADAMS & DUNCAN, INC., P.S.
LAWYERS
3128 Colby Avenue
Everett, WA  98201
Office Tel:  (425) 339-8556
Dir. Tel: (425) 740-3306
Fax: (425) 740-3326
Maren.Benedetti at adamslawyers.com<mailto:Chris.Adams at adamslawyers.com>
www.AdamsLawyers.com<http://www.adamslawyers.com/>

CAUTION! This email is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC 2510-2521 and is legally privileged. The information contained in this electronic message is intended only for the use of the recipient named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this transmission is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message transmission in error, please notify the law firm of ADAMS & DUNCAN, INC., P.S. at (425)339-8556 or by reply e-mail and delete the original message. Thank you.

CIRCULAR 230 DISCLAIMER:  Pursuant to recently-enacted U.S. Treasury Department Regulations, we are now required to advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, any federal tax advice contained in this communication, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended or written to be used, and may not be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed herein.

***Disclaimer: Please note that RPPT listserv participation is not restricted to practicing attorneys and may include non-practicing attorneys, law students, professionals working in related fields, and others.***
_______________________________________________
WSBAPT mailing list
WSBAPT at lists.wsbarppt.com
http://mailman.fsr.com/mailman/listinfo/wsbapt
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210521/665d519b/attachment.html>