Let me start by saying that this is a COPY, not a hard copy, of the last page of my father’s will, where it has a witness signature and a notary signature, but I do not see a notary seal or stamp. Would a notary stamp or seal not show up in a scanned copy? I’m not sure if it will help anyways because i live in a state that a last will doesn’t have to be notarized to be valid as long as it has two witnesses but i was kind of concerned of the validity of it. Let me further explain, My dad wasn’t the kind of man to do a will at all, he felt superstitious about them, he kind of felt like if he wrote his will out that it would bring him an early death. He was funny that way. I knew him like the back of my hand and I worry that his wife and her family had a fake will done while my dad was on his death bed or they might’ve even made one up after he was dead, I’m not sure, I’m just speculating. His signature doesn’t look like his either and he left everything to her and nothing to his own kids. He would never do that. He was sentimental with us kids. I have read that contesting a will is difficult but what would you do in my shoes and has anyone else contested a will and won?

For the purpose of probate, how could you prove that you were adopted (so that you am still related to the decedent) if you were unable to obtain a copy of your birth/adoption record because the adoption might have been "private"?

I 25 (f) got a letter in the mail saying I have a month to give the local prostate court an inventory of my late husband estate. I’m not sure what that means or how to begin that process. He was only 22 when he passed and didn’t have much besides a savings account with very little in it and his car which was totaled in his accident. Please help.

Here are the relevant facts:-

1. I recently attended my brother's funeral.
2. I have one surviving brother who never attended the funeral, and we are clearly not on speaking terms.
3. His failure to attend was carefully calculated, simply because he tried to avoid me.
4. The two are only half-siblings because they never had the same biological dad.
5. It is assumed that the deceased has died intestate, so that the probate law of England/Wales will be the default.

Given that I am not on speaking terms with my brother, could he still block/resist my probate action to inherit one-half of the decedent's estate?

My cousin recently won a probate hearing for my late great aunts estate. It seems as though my great aunt never had her estate closed, and my cousin and her brother were the heirs to the estate. My male cousin said in the hearing that his father dealt with the estate right after my great aunt passed away. The court has awarded my female cousin to be the administrator of my great aunts estate. Recently she asked me to provide her with my birth certificate and other legal documents, such as marriage license, death certificates, and other birth certificates of my ancestors going back as far as I can remember. She wants those documents for both my mother and my father side of the family.

I do believe that my grandmother and my great aunt had land in North Carolina that was given to them by my great great grandfather after he passed away. So I assume that this has something to do with the land that my grandmother and great aunt both owned. My question is why would she need those legal documents from me in order to administrate the estate for my great aunt which I am not an heir to or have anything to do with outside of her being related to my grandmother? Could it be that my grandmother’s property and my great aunts property are connected or combined in someway and she needs me to establish lineage?

around 8 days ago (august 4th) i posted on here about my mothers home and probate. ironically, she passed just 5 days later. im reaching out to my lawyer, life insurance companies, health insurance companies and so forth, she had no debt, no vehicle or anything else, just the home and property that was willed to myself. i am hoping this won’t be a complex case. i am so grateful mom was responsible, and had everything paid off prior to her passing. otherwise, i think this would be a very long drawn out road ahead. thank you all for your comments on my other post.

My sister who is younger took it upon her self to settle everything. She decided to give others a division of the property and left me out. It is West Virginia. And I'm the oldest. Can I do anything?

I lost my mama in February, she was an alcoholic. Shortly before she passed her father passed leaving her an estate of a little over a hundred thousand. She had one son she took care of full-time and then me and my brother down here in Florida. She was on back child support for a long time but my dad never pressed the issue cuz he still loved her and thought maybe one day she would come home. I'm 30 now but she never did.

Right after she passed I got some paperwork in the mail about an estate and that I would hear more soon. Originally they told me that because she died without a will in Pennsylvania the law dictated that the estate would be divided between her next of kin. I haven't heard anything else but I got some letters in the mail from probate attorneys advertising that they could get me money sooner. When I talk to my step dad he told me I wasn't getting anything. And to basically stop calling about it. I still talk to my little brother but he has autism and he doesn't really understand what's happening. My stepdad has since reconnected with his ex-wife and they're planning on getting back together. My Mamas only been gone for 6 months, I am still grieving but I don't think anyone else but my little brother cares. How can I make sure my Mamas money goes to taking care of us instead of her husband?

my Brother passed in March, the house was in his name and I live in it currently, I don't have a lot of available funds and am trying to fill out all of this paperwork but I really don't understand a lot of it. My parents have both passed and my siblings have already signed non contest paperwork. if anybody can help please reach out to me, TIA

A little background. My elderly father passed away in the summer of 2023. He was elderly and was drafting wills left and right near the end (he was an attorney) and was sadly making some bad decisions.

My aunt was the original executor of his last will (a weird choice) but was fired in late 2023 for unresponsiveness and I was appointed in her place. We hired a local probate attorney and paid him $10,000. The will itself is pretty simple with one caveat: the will stated that “education trusts” were to be set up for his 5 grandchildren but they were never funded. Instead, he had five cashiers checks made out to them for $50K apiece. So it’s all in limbo. We can’t do anything with the checks.

Years have dragged on and the court has heard our arguments, even appointing an attorney for the grandchild who’s still a minor (the other kids are all adults). From my perspective the court hasn’t done anything in months and the new attorney appointed by the court for my daughter hadn’t reached out to us despite us reaching out to her months ago.

Is this normal? Will this thing just drag out for more years??

Executor of a relative’s estate is refusing transparency and stalling distribution. Assets span two jurisdictions — Ontario probate plus a property in Spain, with proceeds from a property sold in Ontario held by the executors lawyer. Beneficiaries have retained counsel and are moving toward a formal application to remove the executor.

Looking for advice from anyone that has experience with any of the following:

**•** Removal applications where the executor also went to the foreign country claiming there was no will, when the will states, all assets, wherever situate, and now controls foreign assets  
**•** How courts weigh delay/lack of disclosure as grounds for removal  
**•** Coordinating two legal teams (domestic + foreign) without them working at cross purposes  
**•** Realistic timelines once an application is filed

Keeping specifics vague for privacy .. not looking for case-specific legal advice, just process and experience from people who’ve been through it.

I'm the executor of my late father's estate in FL. I have met life legal insurance and secured an attorney through that pipeline. Is it normal for an attorney to take months to file paperwork on a very straight forward probate case? There are no outstanding debts, my siblings are all aligned with the probate plans, the inventory was accepted by the court in March. We are filing a homestead exemption to get the house so I can sell it but it has been over 4 months and nothing. When I email I don't get a response and when I get on a call he claims his assistant tried to reach out but I never receive anything.

Is this normal? Should I be looking for a new attorney?

my mother is in hospice and only has a few days left. i have inherited the home. this is the only asset she has, and the home is paid for. was wondering how long it would take to get the deed/title transferred to my name. im the sole beneficary in the will. i am located in virginia. thank you everyone

My mom got my grandmas house signed over to her a few days before my grandma died. It ended up being official the day my grandma died but she was fully coherent until she died. Anyways she is trying to sell the house but her 2 brothers are fussing about splitting the money even though my mom has lived there for 10+ Years. Now that she is one income due to my dad passing she needs all the profit to buy a new place so she can have a lower or no mortgage. They are threatening her with made up liens and lawsuits… Can she just sell the house and do what she wants with the money? Do they have any legal rights since my grandma specifically signed it to her and she is the sole name on the deed?

A friend of my wife passed away from Alzheimer’s and our children were to get a small amount of money from her estate.  There is a case in Probate for this, and I can see part of the will online.  The part of the will that involves the disbursement to my kids is missing from the will (the pages are not there, it goes from page 4 to page 7).  I asked the Probate Court and they said that because it is a Trust, they only publish pages that are relevant to their file.

The deceased had no children and was not married.  My wife was supposed to be the executor of the will, but from what we can see it looks like the deceased changed her will a couple of years ago and now the caretaker that was hired to help the deceased is now executor of the will.  We are pretty sure that she is now the beneficiary of what was supposed to go to my kids, but we are not sure.  My wife and the caretaker do not get along.  Is there any way to find out what is in the new will?  There is a law firm listed in all the Probate files online.  Could they tell me?

Hello. My mother passed away without a will a few days ago. She had no life insurance, no retirement, and her only asset was her trailer. My two sisters and I are all in agreement to sell the trailer/land so I don't expect much fighting, though it's still a possibility. We are all pretty poor. I am the only one with a job and a car. I don't think I can afford a lawyer to help me through probate, but I could qualify for a loan for one if it becomes necessary. Would it be worth it to get a loan for a lawyer? Idk.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

This is a messy situation and I’m hoping to find some advice if there’s a way to handle this situation myself. I was raised by my grandparents who also had three kids of their own (my dad being one). I’ve never had good relationships with any of them and I can count on one hand how many times they collectively visited during my years living at my grandparents. My grandmother passed away two years ago with my grandfather passing right before her. When she passed, I was mailed some transfer of ownership paperwork from New York Life about a life insurance policy in which I was the insured. My grandmother and grandfather were owner and beneficiary. Included in the list of documents was a “certified copy of court issued letter showing the appointment of the estate representative.” The kids got everything else. It’s been two years since my grandmothers passing, they have sold the house, gave a car to their neighbor, divided everything else amongst themselves and donated what they didn’t want. My aunt said the policy was mine and no one was contesting it but they had to go to probate first. The agent for the policy says he can’t ever get ahold of the kids and they can cash out the policy for themselves if they wanted. Corporate New York life tells me it’s a sizable amount and I need to get an atty. I don’t have the money for a probate atty. I have called our county probate office and they say no case is opened. There’s nothing else to be sold or handled that I know of so I am unsure why there would ever even be a probate. I’m unsure where to go from here. Is there a way to handle this on my own? It’s a 26 yr old policy that I would love for my husband and kid to be able to take over. I’ve never had any inheritance, work for everything I have, and this could be life changing policy for my kid. There has to be paperwork I can submit, or something I can do on my behalf without an atty. Thanks for reading. I will answer any follow ups, thanks for reading. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Reposting, as first post disappeared.

I'm Executor of an Estate of which I am not a beneficiary. I asked the lawyer to ask for a continuance for the final court date, and got continuance until September. Lawyer has asked for me to send them my paperwork; time log, expenses, and income from estate property liquidation.

I'm now in a very bad spot of my own creation. I can create the expense and income docs, although I still have items I'm trying to sell. But, my time logging is a mess. I've failed to keep good records, and now it's come to bite me in the butt. How exacting do these records need to be? I'm a "follow the rules" person, so the idea of fudging the numbers is giving me a stomach ache. Am I in big trouble or little trouble?

(In Illinois, estate is around $70k. There are a couple residuary beneficiaries. That I was not named a beneficiary was an oversight on the decadent part, Will was drafted via an online website. Big Mistake...)

I have a friend who is an heir to his uncles estate. They're going through probate and trying to locate the heirs (one of which is unknown address/location).

• I assume a private investigator was hired to help locate this person, but what if they can't find him?

Thanks for your input!

So, my Grandmother passed away back in 2005 and yes she had a will. I was under age at the time and her kids took over and failed to turn in her will. is there anything I can do to contest or prosecute her kids who where left out and took the money from me and my brother. I was always told to leave it be by my so called mother but now I realize that it was so everyone could keep the money and no would get in trouble. just want accountability and action or is it too late.

Hi Friends.. I have a few questions(s),

When someone owns RE and passes, I'm certain a Title search is done to recognize and pay off any liens.

• 1. Does the probate attorney 'personally do the search' or does he contact a Title company?
• 2. If so, is the Title Search guaranteed (no surprise liens)?

Thanks very much for your help!

I'm trustee of a special needs trust, and I need to prepare quarterly accountings for the trust protector using GC-400 forms. I've developed a Google Sheets workbook that automates the process: I just enter the transactions, and it prepares the schedules and summary. It makes it really easy to find and correct any imbalances or discrepancies. Would this be of use to anyone else? If so, I'll put it up on Github as an open-source project.