email to her after I read the citation below.
Item: § 11:13.Probate of foreign wills
Citation: 1 Wiggins Wills & Administration of Estates in N.C. § 11:13 (4th ed.)
This tells me there would be or could easily be problems with a West Virginia will, for the reasons stated below:
1) After sale of the house, and transfer of bank account funds to a North Carolina bank, only personal property would remain to be handled in the will (ie cash, furnishings, etc). There would be no real property, only 'personalty'. So below I only quote only as pertains to personalty.
2) Paragraph (a), lines 1-3: "At common law...the validity of a will of personal property was determined by the law of the testator's domicile at the time of his death. The common law rule has been incorporated into the statutory law of North Carolina." (Meaning that all personal property would come under North Carolina law, presuming that would be their official residence at the time of death.)
3) Paragraph (b) reinforces that in North Carolina, common law would rule, by stating "In addition to North Carolina, there are ten other states that have adopted legislation incorporating the common law rule. However, in a majority of states...." (Meaning that North Carolina and ten other states follow common law rule as listed in Paragraph (a) and statement 2) above, however the majority of other states....such as Illinois where our other sister lives.... would be willing to accept a will properly and legally filed in another state. Just as I expected, North Carolina has its own 'peculiar' way of doing things (peculiar used to mean only 'pertains to', as in, the 'peculiar institution'...which became a double entendre.)
4) Paragraph (c) first explains the Uniform Probate of Foreign Wills act, but at the bottom of the first page, the last three lines make it clear that the Uniform Act does NOT apply: "The provisions of the Uniform Act are contrary to the North Carolina and common law view that domiciliary probate is conclusive as to personalty..."
5) Page 2 of the document you sent expresses the opinion that the Uniform Probate SHOULD be adopted in North Carolina.........so as of the writing of this piece, it was not. Therefore, the common law applies: "a will executed in accordance with the law of the testator's domicile"...which would be North Carolina as soon as that becomes their official residence. If no will is filed in North Carolina, then a legal determination that the deceased passed away intestate could apply, since no will was filed in the testator's domicile at the time of death.
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