Heirs’ Property Project Receives $300,000 Wells Fargo Foundation Grant

The Heirs’ Property Project helps to provide ​​and increase access to free legal services for families at risk of losing their ancestral lands and homes

The Heirs’ Property Project, led by Wake Forest Law Professor Scott Schang, has received a generous one-year grant of $300,000 from the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Launched in 2022 as part of the Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, the Project partners with a number of community organizations to provide free legal services to North Carolina residents to preserve their homes and family legacies, as well as to advance state and national policy solutions to tangled titles.

”Wells Fargo is proud to support Wake Forest’s Heirs’ Property Project and their efforts to provide legal counsel in order to preserve homeownership and build generational wealth,” said Jay Everette, National Director of Community Relations for Wells Fargo. “As the Bank of Doing, we believe everyone should have access to a quality, affordable home. More than ever, we need to be intentional about scaling solutions for addressing heirs’ property issues and empowering people to maintain home ownership from one generation to the next.”

As much as 4% of all property in North Carolina—valued at approximately $2 billion—is held as heirs’ property, a form of joint ownership of land by descendants of a person who died without a will or left the property to heirs as tenants in common. Heirs’ property owners, who are predominantly minority and low-income, often struggle with access to capital, government assistance, and expertise—and frequently suffer predatory dispossession.

Co-led by Law Fellow Miles Marlbrough and Professor Schang, the Heirs’ Property Project enrolls Wake Forest Law students to provide legal services to clients who would otherwise not have access to representation, while also allowing students to gain significant experience in the law, building relationships, and thinking creatively about how to meet a client’s needs. The work of the Project has been labor-intensive, requiring deep engagement with heirs across multiple generations in most cases, as well as a collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach.

The Wells Fargo Foundation grant will empower the Clinic to serve as a hub for clinical legal and academic research on heirs’ property issues, help similar clinical efforts take root across the United States, and train the next generation of heirs’ property experts and practicing attorneys. It also will support the Project’s ongoing work to directly assist North Carolina heirs embroiled in legal challenges.

“Heirs’ property issues disproportionately affect rural communities of color and low-income families,” said Wake Forest’s Provost Michele Gillespie. “Wake Forest Law students are doing path-breaking work to help people hold onto their land. I am grateful for the Wells Fargo Foundation’s support of the project and for their investment in North Carolina communities.”

To learn more about the Heirs’ Property Project visit go.wfu.edu/heirs or listen to the Heirs’ Property Project episode of the Legal Deac Podcast.