no will grandchildren

My son's grandmother recently passed away. She owned a house and probably had quite a bit of money. Her son, who is a lawyer, told our son she died without a will. That doesnt make sense to me because he(the lawyer) knows the government would get a lot of her estate in that case. My question is in Washington DC are the decedent's grandchildren entitled to any of the estate if there is no will? If she signed over all her property to her son before she died is the grandchild entitled to file a claim as an heir?

WHOA. There would not be any estate tax difference with or without a Will in this case.

If your ex (your son's father) was the only child she ever had, and she left no surviving spouse, without a Will he'd inherit everything.

If she had another child besides your son, who died but left children of his/her own (her grandchildren through that deceased child), then her assets would get split 50% to the son and 50% to those grandchildren. Otherwise grandchildren get nothing.