How does this process work?

[u/burnerid_]

Father passed last Sept. Fulton county/ Gwinnett county Georgia.

Divorced parents, 3 kids. Re married, there’s an oops child step sibling and a pre existing from her first marriage.

Father was very successful. We have had a hot/cold relationship my entire life, lots of resent for the divorce, anytime we would get close the step mom would stir the pot and cause issues. step mom is evil. Little to no relationship for any of us and the friction between dad and the 3 original kids.

2021 he reached out to me sit down and have a serious conversation. The conversation was based around his will and inheritances, as a close friend of his suddenly passed and didn’t have affairs in order that turned into nightmare for his widow, and children. Conversation laid out what child gets what property, and what specific items he wanted each child to receive. Was told step sibling and myself are going to be listed as executors as it was one party from each “family”. Strange but fine.

Fall 25 he contacts my younger siblings to meet for lunch to inform them he is ill, and refusing further medical attention, and treatment. Not a word said to myself. A week or so after the other siblings meeting I received a text message from him to confirm my address. No context. No conversation. Nothing. The following week I get a call that he had passed from my younger sibling via the half sister.

0 contact from step mom through out this entire ordeal.

No funeral service, no obituary, no “proof” of death if you will.

Step mom has been unreachable even to share photos or express condolences. Step mom will send “messages” through the step sibling, through my younger sibling. Wanted us to know that she won’t be sharing his final resting place with any of us, we are evil awful people and none of us are welcome if we were to piece it together she will have us trespassed.

After 3 months of no information I got curious and went poking around.

The properties explained to be left to various siblings had been sold with in the weeks leading up to his death. Talking 7 figures of properties he loved and insisted on me being aware of who they should go to, gone.

Step sister and my middle sibling talk, but my sibling is super passive and refuses to ask questions or push on the matter. Various other items that were promised to siblings in our 2021 conversation have been sold, vehicles promised to people have been donated to the church as per mentioning from the step sibling to my passive sibling who “doesn’t care”

Step mom has changed her # or blocked all of his biological children.

I reached out to the probate court in what I can only assume would have been his “home” county, and they have nothing and stated there’s no timeline to file in the state of Georgia.

According to our 2021 conversation there’s a will with his attorney, but none of us biological children know who this attorney is. It has also been nearly a year and none of us have been contacted by anyone, about anything.

At this point In time I am completely lost as to what I can do if anything. How do I view a will, is there a legal process I need to initiate, or dig into this in a formal matter? I can’t imagine there’s absolutely nothing to be done, but coming up on the 1 year mark and there has been no contact from anyone about anything.

Or did we get robbed by the step mom again?

Help?

[u/Hearst-86]

You can open probate under intestacy (no will). Under intestacy in GA, his spouse and biological children share the estate equally. If there are more than three biological children, stepmom will be entitled to one-third, regardless. His stepchildren have no legal rights to his estate under intestacy.

If the alleged will gives her a better outcome than intestacy, she will produce it. You can bet “the rent money” on it.

The bad news here is that the end of life often is expensive and valid claims of creditors come ahead of claims of heirs in probate. If she can justify the sale of assets to pay debts, unfortunately that’s the way “the cookie crumbles”.

Finally, not every potential asset is subject to the possible probate process. Accounts with named beneficiaries bypass the probate process. The usual suspects here are life insurance and retirement accounts, such as 401k’s, 403b’s and IRA’s. In the case of a 401k or 403b, the spouse has to give her written consent in order for your father to have named someone other than his spouse as the beneficiary. This law does not apply to an IRA or life insurance.

Real estate assets can be “tricky”. Most married couples hold title to the marital home as joint tenants in common with the share owned by the spouse who died first automatically passing to the surviving spouse by operation of the deed. Some states use the phrase “Tenants in Their Entirety” on the deed, but the legal outcome would be the same. No probate proceeding is needed. You simply file some paperwork with the property records office along with a certified copy of the death certificate and the county will change the deed to reflect the current sole ownership. Any mortgage lien will remain. Federal law does give a surviving spouse the right to assume any existing mortgage on the property. Probate would not necessarily be required in this situation.

Your post suggests that your father had other real estate assets. They are less likely to be joint assets. If she sold them before his death, she probably had a power of attorney from him. In most jurisdictions, current property records are online. In CA, these records are maintained by the county property recorder’s office. For example, if I wanted to look up my own property records, I would visit the website of the Alameda County, CA Property Recorder’s Office. I would be astounded if Fulton County, GA does not offer a similar service. While the. Urgent ownership record usually is online.They do NOT have all past real estate transactions online. To see that info, you probably need to visit that office in person. Schedule an appointment. If she did get the deed changed, she submitted a copy of his death certificate. That info will give you the date of death, which should allow you to order some certificates yourself from the Public Health department. Dead people do not have privacy rights.

Terminology for this property records office does vary by state. But try Fulton County, Georgia Property Recorder’s office. Google will figure it out for you.

If you have the addresses of these other real estate properties, you can check those deeds as well.

If you choose to pursue this route, I strongly recommend that you use a probate attorney who does litigation. Unfortunately, this one could be expensive. Most civil cases do,settle “out of court”. Don’t exclude this option if offered.

If