I am trying to quickly obtain custody of my nieces. This is the situation... They live in West Virginia and their mother passed away in '94, leaving them in the custody of their father who has since remarried. The 3 (three) girls now 16, 14, and 13 are subject to inherit some money from the estate of a relative of their mother (my sister) in North Carolina, but the only thing standing in the way of the estate being settled is the situation with the girls. Since their father, who has sole custody of the girls, has remarried, and is not related to the deceased and the girls are to each inherit a third (1/3) of their mothers portion, I need to quickly obtain temporary custody long enough for the estate to be settled. Their father has no problem with this and is willing to sign whatever paper work necessary, but we don't know how to go about it in the proper way.

If the girls are the ones inheriting, and they are living with their father, what exactly is the problem? Yes, he's not related to the deceased, but I fail to see what that has to do with the situation.

I am trying to quickly obtain custody of my nieces. This is the situation... They live in West Virginia and their mother passed away in '94, leaving them in the custody of their father who has since remarried. The 3 (three) girls now 16, 14, and 13 are subject to inherit some money from the estate of a relative of their mother (my sister) in North Carolina, but the only thing standing in the way of the estate being settled is the situation with the girls. Since their father, who has sole custody of the girls, has remarried, and is not related to the deceased and the girls are to each inherit a third (1/3) of their mothers portion, I need to quickly obtain temporary custody long enough for the estate to be settled. Their father has no problem with this and is willing to sign whatever paper work necessary, but we don't know how to go about it in the proper way.


The guardian of the children doesn't have to be in the same State where the deceased relative lives - if it's a question of filling out documents for them their guardian/father would do it and simply have the documents notarized. Happens all the time -

Unless I am missing something here -

Something is fishy here in my reading. Since the children are all minors, the inheritance should go into a trust for them. You could then be the administrator of that trust. But I see no reason why you would need temporary custody to process the estate.