Where can I find copy of will?

[TxMsLady]

What is the name of your state? TEXAS

This has puzzled my sister and I for years, but I have come across this website and hope someone will take time to answer a few questions. (please!)

My father died in 1993. Over the years, he kept his will updated. (I knew this by the days that my mother stated that he "rode to town to the lawyers office to update the will". He would mention this himself. He kept me informed and he had always told me of land around San Antonio that oil companies have leased since the 1930's and said that should something ever happen to him and mom, for us kids NOT to sell that land. He dies...then mother has the much cherised family, inherited land where they lived stripped of all the hard wood trees (for the $ to travel and "live high off the hog" in her words). She also had a lawyer send my sister and I a letter from the lawyers office requesting that we sign all rights of the land in San Antonio over to her , as the letter read, "out of love and consideration for your mother". She was wanting to sell it....but keep the mineral rights. My sister refused to sign. (she never even knew the land existed and did not appreciate a letter from the lawyer as the way to inform her!). I assumed she knew. My sister then asked my mother for a copy of my dad's will, just to see what his last wishes were. (My mother did not have the will probated, but rather the lawyer helped her do something to "help her save money from having it probated".) What bothers me is the will that she produced for my sister to see. It was over 20 yrs old and we were still children living at home! It was my dad's first will, not the updated one. When my sister called the lawyers office, he states that there WAS no updated will. What's the deal?? My Main question would be ..... Would there be somewhere other than that lawyers office that would have a copy of my dad's will, if, indeed, there was another updated one? Things just don't mesh, and we're just looking for the truth. Years ago, my mother and father gave me the combination to their home safe that such a document would be kept in, but that's not right for me to get into, though I've had many opportunities. Thank you for any advice you can give, and please don't view us as some kind of spoiled brats. We've never asked for anything, but our mother has a history of dishonesty and deceit. We just want answers....truthful ones.

 

[Dandy Don]

If you know the city and state where your father died, then contact the county courthouse probate court for that city and you will need to know the month and year of death in order for the probate clerk to check their index to see if a probate file is available.

You can visit the courthouse to look at the probate file in person or order copies by mail.

If a will is there, then you can get a copy of it. If the will is not there, then you should at least review the entire file to see exactly how the estate was handled and there should be documentation in their about the value of the financial assets and the land. Also find out who served as executor (name and address).

While you are at the courthouse, use the public computers there to check land records or county courthouse records, doing a search under your mother's name and another search on your father's name to see if any transactions come up showing that your mother or father have done legal transactions or other financial transactions or have property ownership in the county. That will probably lead to the information you are looking for about the land or mineral rights. Thank goodness your sister was smart enough not to sign her rights away.

Sounds like your mother and her attorney did some shady dealings here in order to unfairly keep the largest share of the estate without sharing it with anyone else. Seems like he should have named his other children as beneficiaries. I'll bet anything she and her attorney decided to have this estate processed as intestate (meaning "without a will"). Don't you remember the name of the attorney he visited to get the will updated?

After you have reviewed the file, if things don't add up, have a probate attorney review the file for you to see if you can do anything to claim a share of this estate now or file charges against your mother to recover some of it. And also ask if it is illegal for someone to withhold a will from probate and/or destroy it.

Why didn't you all ask MOTHER for a copy of the will? Probably would have gotten the same answer: NO!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[Dandy Don]

Since you have the combination key to the safe, you have every right to open it to at least, for your own information, find out what is in there!! You would be foolish NOT to do it!!

Your mother stole your share of the estate from you, and therefore you have the right to find out if there is anything in the safe that would help you find out more information about your father's assets, or even your mother's assets, for that matter.

If you see any important documents in there, borrow them long enough to make copies and put the originals back in the safe exactly as you found them.

The newer will might be in there, the information about the land records might be in there, and if your mother has prepared a will, that might even be in there.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[TxMsLady]

Dandy Don,

Thank you so much for your reply and advice. What my sister refused to sign was our rights over to our mother for the land in San Antonio. My father had an only cousin in PA who had inheritance to the largest part of the property in San Antonio, and she was the one wanting to sell the land. My uncle and 2 brothers signed their rights over, but after my sister balked, neither she nor I wanted to. Our mother persisted. What once was a sacred piece of property to her and my dad that we should never sell soon became "just a old piece of cow land good for nothing". She had the lawyer send out another set of papers stating that we would still have the mineral rights. We did agree to this, however, the monies that we recieved from the sell was no way the value of that land, even divided between us. (I'd love to take a trip to the courthouse there and see the sell value of this land and do calculations myself...and if there was $ under the table for the lawyer and we were cheated?? What to do?? ) And...of course...this "cousin" in PA kept after us to sign over the mineral rights to her, which though my uncle and brothers did, my sister and I didn't. Mess huh?

We do know the lawyer that my father and mother used. Both my sister and I called the lawyer, and he stated to us both that there was no updated will!! My mother didn't have it probated, so would the probate court still have any copies that would be of use? And if I DID look in her safe, would that be "trespassing"? Sounds silly I know....I just don't want to do anything wrong.

I do need to state that right after my father died, my mother wanted to start liquidating assets....the first being an R.V. that she and my father had. In order to do this, we were told that we children would need to sign a release for her to sell it. Low and behold, it's not until WAY after the fact that my sister and I realized that we had signed all our rights away to her and all possessions. Is there anything that can be done about that? We had no clue what we were signing. We were still under distress and shock of him dying, and understood it to be for the sake of selling that R.V.....not our inheritance away. Now...I know that in wills, it usually states that what is theirs becomes my mother's (mother has reminded me of this!)....but it's the family land that was inherited over the generations on my dads side that unsettles me. Just the fact that she wants to "sell it all and travel". My children, who are young adults and teens, love that land. I just feel my father would have wanted them to keep it in the family. How do I approach this with my mother? She's devious and defensive. In one ear and out the other type person. I am so sorry to "belly ache" on here. All I and my sister would like is to carry out what we believe would be our father's wishes concerning the land properties. Thank you so much for your reply and may God bless!

 

[TxMsLady]

Dandy Don,

Just a P.S.............As far as the executor of the will, I have no clue. Over the years, my father and mother both told me that they wanted me to be the executor. They didn't feel the other 3 children had enough business sense or that they would be fair. I never relayed this to any of my siblings. Didn't want to stir up a hornets nest! I just told my parents that what ever their wishes were, I'd see that they were carried out. Would there had to be someone present besides my mother and the lawyer while going over my dad's will??

Again, thanks for your input, and if you never reply again, I'll surely take the advice that you have given and do some research. I just needed to be pointed in the right direction. I guess since I was told that the will wasn't probated, that there wasn't much I could find at the courthouse other than his death certificate.

 

[Dandy Don]

You would not be trespassing and that definition only applies to land. It is a family safe that has family information, so if they gave you the combination they wanted you to have access at any time.

Forget about trying to carry out your father's wishes about the land. If he had a specific way that he wanted it to be handled, he should have specified this in the will. Since you don't have access to the will, neither you or the executor have the power to retain the land. Therefore, the executor has the right to do whatever she wants with it, keep it or sell it.

 

[TxMsLady]

Thank you for your input. I guess I will just have to see what is in that safe. If I find no updated will, then you are absolutely right....we can just forget about any wishes my Dad had and accept the fact that what has been done is done and life moves on. Thank you for letting me know it is all right to open that safe. Hope you have a great weekend .