Recently in Intestacy Category

Writing a will isn't easy. Oftentimes, it's morbid. Many New Yorkers -- even millionaires -- put off facing mortality by never writing a will. So what happens if you die without a will?

When you leave the world without leaving a will behind, legally speaking you die "intestate."

The late Huguette Clark's estate is in controversy. The reclusive New York heiress left a $300 million embattled estate, reports The Huffington Post.

The battle is between members of Clark's extended family and several close parties, including her medical providers. Now, the fight is heading to court.

Sure Warren G is the name on the track, but "Regulate" was Nate Dogg all the way. If you listen to the lyrics, you'll even notice that in the story, it is Nate Dogg who saves Warren G from getting mugged by regulating before the two of them get together with the fly ladies.

Sadly, Nate Dogg, whose legal name was Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, passed away suddenly last year due to complications with multiple strokes. In his estate, he left behind real estate and his earnings from his music catalog, but no will to determine where it goes, according to TMZ. Now there are issues between Nate Dogg's six children, his wife, and his mother in administering his estate through the probate process.

Do his children need to worry that there was no will?

Legendary Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, sometimes described as "the original Carrie Bradshaw," died this week in New York. She was 90-years-old.

Brown's final years were full of fabulous friends, but her husband and sister predeceased her and she had no children. So what will become of her estate?

Robert F. Kennedy's estranged wife, Mary Kennedy, was found dead in her New York home on May 16.

Details of her death are still unavailable, although news reports call it a "possible unattended death."

Mary Kennedy was currently in the process of a divorce from her husband.

George Lindsey, best known for his role as Goober Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show, died early Sunday morning, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Lindsey died at a healthcare center in Nashville, Tennessee after a brief illness.

The Andy Griffith Show was a 1960's situation comedy with Andy Griffith starring as the Sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina. Lindsey first appeared in 1964 as Goober Pyle, the cousin of the gas station attendant Gomer Pyle.

This generation of Americans that has faced the great recession and the huge amounts of student loan debt promises to be quite debt conscious. As such, many younger people might be wondering: will I have to pay my parents’ debt after they die?

And, of course, the question becomes even more important because as some Americans age, they sometimes lose the interest in or ability to pay back their debts, be it car loans, mortgages, or credit card bills.

So what is the answer? Let’s ask the researchers at FindLaw.

Celebrity estate wars are well known to Americans, whether it is Jerry Garcia or Anna Nicole Smith or Etta James, reports Reuters. Just because someone has passed away doesn’t mean that they pie they left behind shouldn’t be fought over. But there may be lessons in cases like those of Etta James for just about everyone.

Apparently the most common scenario for celebrity estate wars are second or third marriages with children from multiple marriages. Other celebrity estate wars occur when families were in business together, reports Reuters.

So what should average people take away from reading about celebrity estate feuds?

Did Sarah Berman marry 87-year-old Stanley Lowell just so that she could take over his estimated $400 a month rent controlled apartment? Rent control in New York City is a valuable thing, especially when the market value for similar apartments in the West Village can reach $5,000 a month.

Berman, 63, wed the ailing Lowell last September, reports the New York Post. He died only a month after the marriage, and Berman inherited his cheap rent. However, the landlords of the apartment building doubt that Berman married for love -- instead believing that she conned the elderly gentleman to take over the apartment.

Melissa Gladney of Bedford-Stuyvesant is a recent New York lottery winner. Gladney was lucky enough to win the $1,000 A Week for Life top prize, which appropriately gives her $1,000 a week for life with a minimum prize of $1,000,000.

By winning this particular lottery, the 34-year old healthcare worker has also won some built-in financial planning. Unlike the winners of more conventional lotteries like Power Ball where the winner can choose to take a lump-sum payout or a monthly payment over a period of time, Gladney will get $1,000 every week unless she dies early, in which case the remainder of $1 million will be paid out.