Plundered Estate?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington

Here is the skinny...my mother died in 2007 in Washington. She had a will dating back to 1989 and was the only will that we know of known to exist. Upon her death, me and my siblings went to Wa. and met with our stepfather to take care of things. We met at the lawyers office and was read her will. We were all VERY shocked that it was never ammended since 1989. Our grandparents left my mother a VERY sizeable estate at their deaths. It was a known fact that my grandparents did NOT want any of the proceeds from their estate(s) to go to our stepfather or his children that they so very much disliked. My mother had said thet her will was changed prior to their deaths to reflect their final wishes. Come to find out...it was not. Also, our mother was not of sound mind prior to their deaths or even prior to hers.
To this day, our mother's exact estate is an unknown to us and has never been disclosed to us. Instead we were all given a check for some $$ and sent on our ways. Our stepfather was determined to NOT have the estate go through probate. After the dust settled he was at the bank(s) VERY quickly cleaning out all of the accounts and has been on a spending spree ever since. He is VERY irresponsible when it comes to money and has been trying to buy personal happiness for almost 3 years now. Meanwhile he has absolutely NO will or trust himself.
This is not settling well with us siblings and feel we were set up at the time of her death...he knew exactly what he was doing. Basically, all her will said is that our stepfather and us 3 siblings get everything divided equally. This has NOT happened and he is less than forthcoming about anything having to do with it. He has been told that is not his to be spending and has said that he knows...but just continues to spend recklessly. We have not seen any $$ since our mothers death.
So, I think what the questions are...do we as heirs have any recourse? Can it be challenged at all? Being it didn't go through probate, is there anything we can do? Has the statute of limitations expired? We are NOT lawyers and need sound advise.

You head up to WA, retain a probate attorney, and file to open probate.

OK...one more time for those who do not quite understand law talk. What exactly are you saying? I am by far a total idiot when it comes to this stuff and need a thorough explanation. I myself am in Ca.,my brother is in Ct. and my sister is in Fl. A scattered bunch we are but I think we need to get together again to make this right.

So,being that my mother's estate did NOT go through probate it can be still be filed in probate? It has also been 3 years in April.

Three years was an awfully long time to wait before attempting to clarify the situation.

You have to remember that not all assets need to pass through probate. Many married couples own assets jointly and such assets pass to the surviving spouse by operation of law rather than through the probate process. That stepfather has been able to access the assets and go on a "spending spree" tends to indicate that someone thinks that he is now the owner.

Who is the lawyer and who does the lawyer have a relationship with? Was the lawyer retained by your stepfather? You could try contacting that lawyer and inquiring, but the lawyer will be under no obligation to communicate with you.

Failing that, the only way that you are going to find out in what manner your mother owned her assets, whether the assets were subject to probate, and what has happened to those assets is to file to open probate and ask to be appointed by the court to administer the estate.

You can get some general info about probate by doing a search on something like "Washington probate." I have found that this site has some pretty good and understandable stuff:

http://www.wa-probate.com/

Yes, after 3 years we are just getting our heads out of our collective backsides. We were so uneducated on the matter.
When our mother died, we knew nothing of these legal matters. What we did know is that she had a very sizeable inheritance from her parents. The inheretance was in 2004 when my grandfather passed away. My mother was supposed to ammend her will under advise of her father and council to reflect the inheretance and her father's final wishes for it as well prior to his death. She did not. Unfortunately, my mother was not of sound mind for quite a few years leading up to her death in 2007. However, my stepfather just sat and waited. He knew the magnatude of my mother's estate and has yet to disclose it to any of us children.
The only things we have is a will dated from 1989 when they first moved to WA. She basically had nothing back then and neither did my stepfather. There was also a community property agreement with the will also dated 1989...that was it. They were just done pretty much for piece of mind at the time. The relationship of the lawyer was with my mother and the community property agreement has both of their signatures.
Not knowing the exact nature of the estate due to non-disclosure, how would one know what is subject to probate?
My stepfather was very Gung-Ho to leave it out of probate...period. We saw nothing odd about it because we didn't know a thing...and that is how it has remained. The ink on the death certificate and other associated paperwork wasn't even dry when he made his first attempt(s) to make bank withdrawls. He had quite a hard time until all paperwork was finalized from her death. He stuck with it though.
I do know that my sister is named on some accounts in the event that he becomes "not of sound mind". I know that even my sister has no clue to the full extent of the estate either. I guess another question would be is can an open probate still be filed to find out the full scope of the estate, see how much exactly has been plundered in an effort to stop the reckless spending to get an accurate inventory and do what was supposed to be done in the first place?

There was also a community property agreement with the will also dated 1989...that was it. They were just done pretty much for piece of mind at the time. The relationship of the lawyer was with my mother and the community property agreement has both of their signatures.

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Uh oh! You said the magic words.

You really, really need to consult with a WA attorney with probate/estate experience. Maybe your mother's lawyer will talk things over with you.

Under Washington community property law, married people can enter an agreement as a form of estate planning. Usually, the property division contract states that all current property is owned by both spouses, including assets brought to the marriage, and that all future acquisitions will also be jointly owned. Upon death, the property is transferred to the surviving spouse.

As a form of estate planning, a community property agreement can prevent surviving family members from arguing over the rightful ownership of property upon your death. Community property agreements allow the quick transfer of assets to a surviving spouse without probate proceedings.

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http://www.jcrlaw.com/PracticeAreas/Community-Property.asp

Also:
http://www.avoid-probate.com/G-Community-Property-Agreements.htm

And, if you want to wade through the statute, it is here:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=26.16

Well...that is NOT good. Sounds like a potentially dead issue on our behalf and business as usual for him.