Hello,

If a mother or Father passed away without a will how do you access the funds from there bank accounts and investments:confused:

You say father or mother; if one is still alive, then he or she inherits in most cases. If the last of the two has died without a will, you go to the Probate Court of the town in which they lived and ask for the procedure for applying to inherit. Each state has different laws about which next of kin inherit and in what proportions, including if there were adoptions, divorces, remarriages, and so on. You may have to wait several months for probate to finalize.

If money is needed for a funeral, just talk to the funeral home. They are experienced in dealing with the probate court and can get paid. If you have access to papers about bank accounts and investments, contact all of them, the sooner the better. Some will require a notarized death certificate, others a copy of it. You can do all this yourself, or you can hire the bank, or you can hire a lawyer. When you go to probate, apply to be executor. If approved (by notarized statements from other immediate family) then you will save on fees charged by the bank or lawyer.

It isn't common for someone with investments and substantial assets to not have a will. So you may find that one does exist in the offices of a local lawyer or another one if that one is no longer in practice.

Thank you,

I live in Canada, My father is dying, he has remarried, his second wife and himself kept all financial matters separate.

With regard to the lawyer, how would I be able find a will that was filed with a lawyer

Ask your father if he has created a will and where it is. If a will has been fiuled and entrusted to an attorney it would be up to that attorney to monitor whether the testator is still living and then act upon the testator's death.

If there is no will those who stand to inherit go to court to probate the estate and have an executor appointed. The executor would then create an account in the name of the estate and can move all funds into that account.

Talk to your fathers attorney, your father needs to tell other family members where wills and the such are.

If he does not have other people listed on account, you will have to probate the will and follow the instructions on the will

If you don't know, and you can't ask your father, or don't want to, nor do you want to ask his wife, really it isn't very good to go sniffing around while he's still alive. He could change his will in the last breath he takes (it happens!).

So that leaves you with waiting to be contacted by the court, and if you aren't contacted within a few weeks after death, you start doing what I said above. If you know where he is, presumably his wife knows where you are, if for some reason you didn't let your father know your current address.

I suppose you could actually visit your father, whether he can recognize or acknowledge you or not, and give your contact info to his wife.

Dying without a will is called intestate. You can look up the order of distribution of assets for your province.

Hell again

I can ask my dad, he is not able to answer now, his condition is not expected to get better, it all happened so fast, I am sure he was expecting this.

I'd go hold his hand for a day. Maybe he can hear you.
It may be needed peace for you a few years from now, or many, you never know when might hit.

Thank you for the advice, I decided not to go through his things. Today he was much better able to communicate and we did get several questions answered.

Have a good day

Ps love the pics of the cats