EXTENSION REPORT

Baldwin County Office

302A Byrne Street

Bay Minette, AL  36507

Rick Zapata
Regional Extension Agent
Consumer Sciences & Personal Financial Management 

January 15, 2008

In our country, less than 40% of our citizens have made an estate plan for the distribution of their assets after they die. Even fewer, less than 20% of younger couples have developed a will to cover the guardianship of their children if they should both die at the same time. Among African Americans, 83% have not left a will of any kind. Why is this a problem?

            If you do not leave instructions in the form of a will or a trust, the State of Alabama will decide who gets your property and who will gain custody of your children. The property decisions will be made by the Probate Judge in your county. Any legal heir can lay claim to your property if you do not leave a will. In the event that no legal heirs can be found, the State of Alabama will take your property.

            When someone dies and does not leave a will, the surviving relatives can continue to live on the property; however, they will not have clear title to the property. When this situation occurs, the property is referred to as Heir Property. Here in Alabama, there are thousand of acres being used and held as Heir Property.

            With each generation that follows, the land remains the same size, however, the number of heirs increases. This situation can bring about numerous problems for the family members living on the land.

            When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, there were thousands of people who received damage to their homes and they became eligible for Federal and State Financial Aid. There is one catch to receiving this aid: “You must have clear title to your property”. In other words, the people giving out money for repairs required a copy of the deed to the property to show that you indeed owned the property and that deed had to be in your name. There were lots of people in our area who lived on Heir property, who had never bothered to have the property put in their name. This excluded them from many government benefits after the storm.

            Another big problem with holding family land as Heir Property is that with each generation, there are more “Heirs”. Each legitimate heir owns a piece of the property and they are entitled under the law to sell their interest in the property, no matter how small their interest (or piece of the property) may be. If a person outside of the family buys one of the relatives’ share or interest in the family land, they can then go to the court system and file a law suit to force the sale of the property. This is called a suit to “Quiet Title”. When this happens, all the legitimate heirs will be identified and notified of the court action. If arrangements cannot be made with the person who bought the share or interest from the family member, the court will likely order the property sold at auction. When this happens, the family land is usually lost and sold for less than what it is worth. Thousands of acres of rural family owned land have been lost through this type of court action. The bottom line is this, if you or your family is living on Heir Property without clear title, your land is at risk.

            The good news is that the Alabama Cooperative Extension System is offering free workshops to help citizens develop an estate plan. The workshop covers wills, trusts, probate and tax law, and heir property. If you would like to attend a workshop that is already scheduled, you can call the Baldwin County Extension office at 251-937-7176 for information or log on to our website at www.aces.edu/counties/Baldwin/. If your church or civic group would like to have the workshop presented, you can call Rick Zapata at 334-703-7176.

Conservation Tillage Workshop

            A Conservation Tillage Workshop will be held on Wednesday, January 23rd at the Loxley Civic Center in Loxley. The workshop is designed for Alabama and Florida farmers desiring to learn more about conservation tillage methods from other farmers and conservation tillage researchers. Topics to be covered at the workshop include cover crop, weed, and fertility management. Additional topics include soil compaction, water relations, equipment, and USDA farm programs. The workshop is free and lunch will be provided. The workshop will begin at 8:00 a.m. with on-site registration and end at 1:00 p.m. For more details about the program, contact the Gulf Coast RC&D at (251)580-0195 or your local NRCS (251)937-7174 or Richard Petcher at (251)202-1009.

Email address: rrz0001@auburn.edu
Phone: 937-7176 or 943-5611, 928-0860, ext. 2222

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work in agriculture and home economics, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, and other related acts, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M University and Auburn University) offers educational programs, materials, and equal opportunity employment to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status, or disability.

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