Question Details: Before my boyfriends grandmother died, she visited him often in prison. She made it clear that his father and uncle would split her estate and if his father were to pass before she did, him and his brother would split his share 50/50. His father did pass away before his grandmother but he was incarcerated at the time and his brother is mentally disabled due to a motorcycle accident. Neither of them received anything from their grandmother's estate. He assumes his uncle took it all. What steps need to be taken to find out if in fact he was left part of her estate?
You will only find this out if the Will was admitted to probate, of if the decedent's land was transfered to someone after his/her death. In both cases, you have to start at the county clerk's office (in some counties that will be 2 different offices). Tell them that you'd like to check on a probate filed under the decedent's name, and at land records ask them for copies of any deeds on the land after decedent's date of death. Those two methods are not fool proof, but they'll give you a good start. Good luck.

I am not admitted in Washington.
You can check to see if a will was filed in Probate Court. It would be filed in the county in which his Grandmother was domicilced (lived) at the time of her death. It is a public record and can be viewed by anyone. If no will was filed then an administration would have been done and a Personal Representative appointed. You can view that as well. If you think that there was a will but it was not submitted in to court then your boyfriend has to do some investigating, like contacting the attorney who may have done the Will, etc. The information his Grandmother told him may lead to something.

Are you a lawyer?
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