Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
If my stepmother is not mentioned in or executor of my fathers will and they are divorced why would the lawyer that wrote his will give her a copy of it when my father pasted away. The rest of the family members that were in the will were given their copy from her (my ex-stepmother). I do not understand why she was given his will when they are divorced. Something else I found strange was that it was prepared by her attorney and not his attorney also there was no mention of his house in the will. She said that was because she got the house in the divorce but she refused to show me a copy of the divorce papers and when I went through my fathers papers I found no copies of any divorce papers and he kept everything important or not. She was allowed in the house by his live-in care person before I was able to get over there. Also I had never seen a will before now is there a way to tell if it is real or not.
2 Answers from Attorneys
1. Everyone who might have any rights to the any part of the estate assets legally should get a copy of the Will. As his former wife, she could have an interest in community property that is part of the estate. It is not up to the attorney to decide if she actually has any right, merely if she might.
2. the house may not be mentioned in the Will because it might have been put into a Trust or he accepted that she got full ownership from the division of the property for the divorce.
3. perhaps part of the divorce agreement was that her attorney would write the Will subject to your father's determination of how the property would be divided.
4. go down to the county recorders office to look up the property and see what the official documents show as to ownership of the property; check with the court files to see if any divorce documents were filed with the court.
5. there is no way to tell if a Will is real or the last one written by the deceased. You can look at the signature and if what is said seems consistent with what you think the person would do, but you ca never be positive.
In addition to what Mr. Shers provided, you should be able to go to the courthouse where there divorce was held and see the divorce file. That will tell you who was awarded what in the divorce.
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