how do I find out if my father has a will

[regisc]

My father recently passed away. He was remarried at the time. He owned property in Florida but lived in North Carolina. He lived in PA and Florida when my mother was alive but his address was the same as mine. I know at one time I was the executor of his will but never really saw the will. I would like to know how to find out if he had a will at the time of his death or if he had changed the will when he remarried. I am not really looking for a large financial gain but am interested in some of his personal belongings that he had promised to me. As you can tell, there are some hard feelings with the new spouse.

 

[ALawyer]

Sorry about your loss.

One way to do it is to ask her, or have a lawyer ask her (even better).

A second is to see if there was a Will filed in the county court house of the county in which he lived.

If all his assets were in a trust, this would be a dead end. Or he may have placed some of his assets in joint tenancy with his new wife, and they do not pass by Will then.

If he had a lawyer prepare the old Will, and the lawyer is holding it or has a copy, then you could explain the matter to the lawyer and have the lawyer go to court with that Will and seek to file it for probate. Or if you can't find any Will, you could go in a seek to be appointed administrator of his estate, and then notify the wicked witch from the East, and let her come in to court to say why either she should be named as administrator (if there is NO Will) or bring the Will to court.

 

[advisor10]

12-16-2000


You will need to find out the name of the city/state in North Carolina where he died (since that takes priority in determining estate matters), and then check at the county courthouse for that city/state to see if a will has been filed yet. Since he recently passed, it will take about a month or up to a year or more for the will to be filed, so just be patient. At least send a certified letter to the remarried wife asking her if you are mentioned in the will and you should kindly offer your services to "assist her in any way possible" in doing whatever you can do to help handle his affairs if necessary.

Your situation really points up the fact that people should discuss their estate matters with their surviving relatives, even though sometimes it may be uncomfortable to think about death. If your father had had a serious discussion with you, you could have asked him or he should have told you the name of the attorney firm that drew up the will, and the names of any banks where his accounts were held, and at the very least he should have given you a copy of the will if you were going to be responsible for handling everything!

You could hire a private investigator to pull a copy of his credit report to find out where he did his banking, etc. Check with his last place of employment to find out if he had any life insurance policies. You could also place a small classified ad in that North Carolina city's newspaper asking if anyone (an individual or law firm) knows about a will for that individual to please contact you.

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