new mexico probate

my stepmother has been named personal representative over my fathers estate. I had requested a copy of the will from her but she wouldnt give me one. i finally got ahold of otero county and recieved the will and saw why. my father had 3 natural children and 2 step.Step mom is mother to 3. her 3 children were written to recieve 1/4 and me and my brother 1/8. should i have been given the opportunity to contest it before it was admitted to probate? I dont believe he would ever have done such a thing and i think there was amore current will but have no proof. how do i go about seeing a list of his assests as this was not part of the probate record? she claims she is broke but my dad was a doctor and had just retired and lived in a $300,000 home. she claims their is no estate to form a trust with and is cashing bonds etc that were to go into the trust but no trust exists. the letter i recieved said she is rep. and the probate will go unsupervised by the court. does this mean she doesnt have to abide by the will? should i contest her being rep. or the will itself? this woman left my dad 6 months earlier and had no intentions of returning- set up house in another state. this caused him great heartbreak and led to his strokes and eventual death. thank you for your help

SEPT. 6, 2001

DEAR JULIE:

The fact that your stepmother did not want to give you a copy of the will should be an indication that she is trying to be secretive about her estate activities. The fact that it appears you live in Texas may mean that she doesn't want to keep you fully informed about what is going on with the estate.

If you want to contest the will, you can do it while the estate is still open and still being probated, but it is somewhat difficult to do unless you have proof of a more current will, but I must say, the extenuating circumstances you mentioned (about her leaving him and setting up house in another state which affected his health) are very strong factors in your favor.

First, examine the will to see if there are any penalties for anyone who contests the will, and decide whether it would be financially worth it for you to contest the will (you would have to pay an upfront fee to an attorney to represent you).

There will be no financial records in the probate file until she is finished probating the estate. What kind bonds is she cashing? If I were you, I would hire an attorney to at least try to do an asset search to see if he could find out some kind of record of what your father was worth financially (where he did his banking, if he had any CD's, money market funds, stocks, insurance policies, etc.). It's kind of hard to find out about someone's assets without professional help. With him having a $300,000 home it appears he was very financially successful. You would also want the attorney to explain to you what the "unsupervised probate" means, which sounds very suspicious. I hope she is not trying to hide assets that would prevent other beneficiaries from claiming their rightful share.

You should post your question on the website www.lawguru.com where it is more likely that a New Mexico probate attorney would see your question and respond. Also if you hire an attorney, you need to hire one who works in the same city or county where your father lived/died (I assume that was in New Mexico).

SINCERELY,

[email protected]

thank you so much for your reply, and hoped i could trouble you with one more question. as i dont have any money to hire a lawyer with, fighting it may prove difficult, but if i wanted just the asset search done would it matter if i hired one locally to me or would it need to be in new mexico? and would she then know i had payed for such a search? thanks again for your help with this.