Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

I assume you politely have asked your sister for half of the jewelry and she will not budge. You likely need to hire an attorney to write to her what the probate law is [absent a Will to the contrary, you are entitled to half the value of the estate, which includes personal property such as jewelry, furniture, and the real property, the house]. Insurance policies pass outside of the estate to the person named as beneficiary. There may also be questions as to whether full title to the front house was given, was it a proper gift, easements to access to the back house, etc.

After you provide an attorney with all the information relevant, they can write a letter to try to get your sister to follow the law; if she still refuses, you will have to open up probate, perhaps for both deceased parents, and have a court order who gets want [actually, the administrator of the estates makes the decidsion subject to court approval]. There are ways to save some money as to the costs to you, such as hiring a competent attorney knowledgable in the field but for some reason charging less than other attorneys [often because of lower overhead, such as rent; attorneys in downtown S.F. must charge more than attorneys in a more rural area to make the same amount of money], knowing what you want done and limiting the atttorney to that, etc. You need to read some books on Wills and probate, such as the Nolo Press books that can be found in most public libraries.

You clearly do not have enough knowledge about the law to try this on your own. You are speaking about enough likely recovery to make the cost of hiring an attorney worthwhile.

[not entirely proofread]