determination of beneficiaries and beneficiaries shares

What is the name of your state? Florida
my question is when my father passed away he had not included me in his will because we just found each other almost 2 years ago. my stepmother who is the personal representitive wants to include me as equal share with my half siblings. she has agreed to make me equal beneficiary to my half siblings and the attorney mailed me all these documents which included me as a co-equal beneficiary as them. the lawyer drew up all the neccessary petitions for court approval on that. then i recieved all law documents saying that my siblings and i needed to sign which included a determination of beneficiaries and beneficiares shares, notice of hearing to present to court,a declaration that proceeding is adversary, and waivor of attendance at scheduled hearing. ok, so i mailed all these documents back signed and notorized. then i recieve two documents from the lawyer today that say 1- Notice of withdrawal of petition for determination of beneficiaries and for determination of beneficiary shares and 2-Notice of cancellation of hearing. what does all this mean? and does this mean my stepmother who is personal representitive and beneficiary of my father's estate has withdrawn me from recieving equal to my half siblings?

It could mean that she was legally advised that there was no way you could legally be "included" in someone's will. You need to be talking to the personal representative or the attorney about this yourself to find out exactly what has happened, and suggest that if the other half siblings/beneficiaries agree that you should receive something from the estate then if they want to privately send you a gift check after they receive their checks from the estate, then that will be okay with you.

If you have a copy of the will you need to be taking it to a probate attorney to have it reviewed to see if you have a case for contesting the will. If you were specifically disinherited by name, then your father did not intend to leave you anything. If you were not disinherited specifically by name, then it is possible that you might have legal grounds to contest the will, although it may cost you a few thousand dollars in upfront fees to retain an attorney to defend you unless you can persuade one to represent you by temporarily waiving his fee, based on the size of the total value of the estate (what is the size of this estate?) and how much he would be able to get if he won your case.

If you don't have a copy of the will you need to get one!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])