Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

if the will was lodged with the superior court, you should be able to obtain a copy from the court clerk in the county in which she died. you may also be able to check to see if a probate was opened for her estate in that county. otherwise, if you do not have a copy and no copy was found in her effects, you could contact the attorney who prepared the will. you should consider retaining a qualified attorney who practices in the county in which she died to assist you with this process.

The probate Court is always the first place to check. After that you should contact other family members. You also want to investigate to see if there was a trust. A good way to do this is to check your aunt's recorded deed information if she owned real estate to see if it's listed in a trust. Those deeds also sometimes show the drafting attorney's name. Basically it's detective work! If all that fails sometimes you can hire an attorney and ruffle some feathers. Good luck to you. -John