Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: Did Grandmother have a will?

Check with your grandmother's friends and even clergy members regarding the will. Perhaps the trust department of your grandmother's local bank or a local trust company may be holding the original if they were designated as the exector. Did your grandmother have a safe deposit box? (The NYS Dept. of Tax & Finance can issue a release of lien allowing the safe deposit box to be opened.)

Good luck.

Re: Did Grandmother have a will?

Checking the Surrogates Court is the most effective way to find a will. Attorneys usually do not keep the original will, only a copy, which often does not even have the witness signatures on it. A will can be destroyed by the testator at any time; we often tell our clients not to put the will in a safe deposit box but to keep it availabe. After checking the Court and relatives, hiring a private investigator may be helpful. Other than the original will, did you search Surrogates to see if her estate was settled without a will? If not, have her date of death available and check again. Thea amount of time and effort put into finding a will, if one exists, is naturally related to the value of finding one. If it's worth your while, get the investigator.