Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Michigan

Re: How to Find out the contents of a will

Go to the probate court for the county in which your grandmother lived at the time of her death. See if an estate has been started. If so, look at the file. The will should be in there. If no estate has been started and someone has the will, get the will and start a probate file. If no one you know has the will, and she left property, start a probate file. If she left property, you may as well get a probate attorney. It will make everything much easier for you.

Re: How to Find out the contents of a will

If there was a will, it would have been filed and probated in the county where she died. You should have been given notice as an heir, if your parent (who is her child) had died, otherwise your parent would have received the notice. If you were mentioned in the will, you would get notice, if it was probated, in any event.

Either she had no assets, or she had assets and they were jointly owned by her and your cousin (or others) and by law they get to keep the assets unless you can show the accounts were made joint for convenience.

Check the probate court in the county where she lived to see if a probate got started, or if a will was filed. It is best to do this in person, as they will not tell you over the phone if a will was filed, but no probate proceeding was started. You will need a copy of her death certificate.

We handle these kinds of cases all the time, so should you decide legal action is appropriate contact me directly.

Pat Prince