Say a distant relative died and you knew you were mentioned in their will.
How would one go about viewing the will? Would they need anyones permission? Does the solicitor dealing with the will contact named parties independantly or would he trust a benefactor to inform the other benefactors?
You might want to inquire at the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the person died.
If the will is probated (and most are), then it is part of the public record, along with any other documents involved in settling the will. This site has more information on the process. You can apply to the Probate Court in the state in which the deceased lived to see a copy of the will.
The Executor of the estate is responsible for contacting all beneficiaries named in the will and distributing the estate (less costs, taxes and fees) to them. Probate Court must be satisfied that all beneficiaries who could be found were contacted. If you feel that you were named in the will but not contacted, you should write to the Probate Court and let them know of your concerns. If the estate has not been closed, they can pass your contact information to the Executor.
This is one of the reasons to go to the funeral, and to call or talk to family members.
It’s also good to write condolences to those closest to the decedent (and to those closest to you), with your return address on the envelope.
The executor or administrator files with the County of the decedent’s residence or death. Probate takes some time. The executor files, then he has to enumerate all the assets and schedule six months just to locate all creditors, and he lists all the heirs and family members to a certain distance, pays the bills, gets the judge’s OK on the accounting, and distributes the estate. (This is per memory of California procedures. I am not a lawyer.)
It’s OK to contact the Probate Court and get the executor’s contact information, and assist him by providing your address and phone, and it’s OK to ask him if you are mentioned in the will. This is, if you haven’t been able to do this in normal family discussions.
It may be that there is a trust, or in some other way you don’t get your part until after the spouse has also died, for instance. It is still legitimate for you to know what you are to expect.
This is really only an issue if the deceased died without a will. If that occurs, there are formulas that the Probate Court uses to decide who gets what proportion of the estate. If there is a will, then the distributions cited there will apply (e.g. my spouse gets $10,000, my son gets $1 because he’s a lazy bum, etc.) - unless the will is contested.
Yes, if there is no will, there are rules as to which relations get which percentages of the estate.
But in California, the executor would provide a list of all relatives within reason even if the whole estate was left to the spouse, for instance. Unrelated beneficiaries would also be listed. The list was used, I believe, for notification to said relatives of the progress of the probate. It was routine and therefore I believe required. (I am still not a lawyer.)
Since the relatives would no doubt be interested in what was happening with the estate, this made a method of keeping them informed, so the executor or administrator wouldn’t be receiving too many random awkward phone calls, or be subject to family speculation and rumors. And, it would allow for error-correction if appropriate.
The OP could no doubt contact the executor to verify that s/he is included on the list, and make sure the address is up-to-date and correct.