Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My father died and I asked my stepmom to make sure he makes a will a year before he passed away since I lived in another state. But he didn't have a will. She said it cost to much money. She did that on purpose so she can get everything. My father verbally told her, myself and his grandson that when he dies I get his car. Now she says that he might have changed his mind. Also 1 week before he passed away his showed his grandson 3 CD accounts each with 5,000 dollars in them, 1 for each son and 1 for his grandson. She says there was no CD accounts but we checked with wells fargo and they confirmed that there was 3 CD accounts. What can I do? Can I filed anything with the court to send his estate into probate? The house current house value is $461,000 the wells fargo account had over $24,000 in it. They lived in Orange County, CA
1 Answer from Attorneys
In California, any estate worth more than $100,000 is supposed to be probated; any one can file to probate an estate. But a promise to make a Will or to give someone something is not enforceable. You need to find out what part of his assets were private funds [he had before the marriage to your stepmother] he did not intermix so as to cause them to become community property, as she is entitled to half of the community property as being hers anyway and is entitled to the other half as his spouse. If the CD's were community property, he had no right to leave them to someone else; if they were from private funds, you might have a right to those funds. Obviously your stepmother will not co-operate, so you need to do the investigation on your own to determine what the nature of the ownership of the assets were and then you can retain an attorney to find out what you qualify for.
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