Hello folks,
My dad was landman in Oklahoma in the 70-80’s. He holds many, many small ORRIs throughout the state. My mother and he passed around 2000. He put some ORRIs in trust but most were left in the estate. Interests go to Oklahoma Unclaimed every few years and I make a claim as the administrator of their estate. I disperse these to my six siblings. Between the trust and unclaimed, the total is about $300 per person each year, so these are very small indeed, totaling about $2K annually.
We are all getting long in the tooth and I want to figure out the best way to deal with the interests. Last thing we want is all of our children splitting the interests even further. Managing all those small interests is a headache for seven and I can’t imagine doubling/tripling it.
Selling doesn’t really seem viable. What I’d like to propose to the siblings is to transfer interests to a charitable trust that covers lunches for kids at local Tulsa elementary school. My mom worked in a Tulsa elementary school cafeteria for 20 years and helped cover kids lunches out of pocket when she was serving them. I’m sure it would bring a smile to her face to know her estate might still be helping out kids.
Problem is transferring mineral rights seems to be lawyer intensive and is just not financially practical. Does anyone have suggestions on an inexpensive way to deal with this.
Thanks, Ruth