01 Dec Can illegal immigrants receive an inheritance?
Photo: russ604/morguefile.comQ. My girlfriend of 20 years is here illegally. We don’t want to get married (she never divorced her husband from when she was young). I planned to leave my estate to her. Will that be a problem now?
— Concerned
A. Your girlfriend may have problems, but not in terms of any inheritance she could receive from you.
A person can be a beneficiary under a will even though they are in the country illegally, said Shirley Whitenack, an estate planning attorney with Schenck, Price, Smith & King in Florham Park.
She said this is because a person can leave their assets to anyone, regardless of immigration status or whether the beneficiary lives in another country.
“The inheritance will be subject to inheritance tax and the executor may need the beneficiary to sign certain documents, but the reader’s girlfriend should be able to receive the estate’s assets,” Whitenack said.
To make sure your estate plan is in order, Whitenack recommends you consult an estate planning attorney.
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This post was first published in December 2016.
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