My mother died in October of 2010 and had a Will that my step father (step father of 20 years) said we would get to as soon as he could, 6 months later he died and we never did my mothers Will. My step father was very sick with cancer and on heavy medications and his sister and daughter got him to change his Will a month after my mother died and her Will disappeared. My step father was not in the right state of mind from the meds and my mothers death. My step fathers sister has taken over everything of my mothers and won't let my brothers and I even have her personal items. Do I have any rights to any of my mothers stuff?

You have rights if she left anything to you, so do you have a copy of her will, or do you know who does, the lawyer she used? If she left everything to her husband, then his will now is what matters. What do you mean by 'we never did her will?' Do you live near her town? It can take a lot of work to find a will and apply to be executor at the probate clerk's office. Or hire a lawyer in that town to try to find her will.

Not having a will (dying 'intestate') is another subject entirely.

Now of course people sue over wills and lack of wills and lost wills all the time, but it gets very expensive.

If you can find her will then you submit it to probate court. If there is no will to find, then you still file in probate court that she died intestate.

Missouri intestacy laws set forth the order in which a decedent's heirs will inherit his estate if he dies without a will. Under Missouri Revised Statute 474.010(1), the surviving spouse is the first to inherit from the decedent's estate. If there are no surviving descendants, the spouse inherits the entire estate. If the descendants are also the spouse's children, the spouse will receive $20,000 and half of the estate, but if the descendants are not the spouse's children, the spouse inherits half of the estate. 474.010(2) states that the decedent's descendants inherit the remainder of the estate in equal shares after the spouse inherits, or the entire estate if there is no spouse. If there are no descendants, the decedent's parents will inherit. Siblings are entitled to inherit next if the parents are already deceased. More distant relatives can inherit if there are no other heirs. Lastly, under 474.010(3), if the decedent does not have any surviving heirs, the estate will escheat (pass) to the state.

Read more:Inheritance Law in Missouri

So, his children are in somewhat of a quandry. If they deny that a will exists, then you and your siblings inherit half the estate. If they produce the will, then your mother's estate needs to be distributed according to that will. But clearly, unless they can prove that your mother left everything to your step father, then they have no right to all of her belongings. If you take them to probate court over the estate, it will go bad if they are shown to have kept your rightful inheritance from you.

My mother had a legal Will, just not done by a lawyer. To make it legal here you only have to have two witnesses and have it noterized, which is what my mother did, not having any reason to not trust my step father. She worked in the business part of a bank for over 20 years. My mother had two life insurance policys, 401K and so much more.
My so called evil step family got greedy and destroyed her Will. We can't prove it but we know for a fact they did and I have an emil from the step aunt stating she helped my step dad change his Will after my mother died and my brothers and I were in his Will too. She also states in the email that he doesn't have to give me and my brothers anything because we are not blood children and we are not in the Will. I know my mother had more than one copy of her Will but it is now gone too. Honestly... it's not even about the money to me... I want her personal items to remember her by.

Having it notarized with 2 witnesses is all very fine, but as you have seen it's useless without even one copy. A lawyer would keep it on file and attest to it's veracity, and that's what it's all about - having copies, and having copies that a court can be reasonably certain are real. If a lawyer moves or dies or retires, it goes to another lawyer, and you are notified.

Please read ScottGems instructions and follow them ASAP. It could be to your benefit that they are claiming there is no will. They certainly can't admit to destroying it, so your mother died intestate, and that's good for you.

You could do a little asking around at her bank. She may have had a safe deposit box (gone now, most likely) but people there may have some bits of information for you. But go to the probate court ASAP because you don't have forever. They will tell you the time limit.

I'm sure your mother executed a legal will, but unless you have a copy of it or proof that she executed it, it doesn't matter. So you have to get yourself (or a sibling) appointed as executor of her estate. Then you either need to find the will or file for an intestate distribution of the assets.

Once an executor is appointed they can force an accounting of the assets to prepare for a distribution.

I just had a lawyer tell me that in the state of Missouri, if one spouse dies and the other is still living it all goes to him whether she had a Will or not. How is that even legal? What is the point of having a Will then?

Get another lawyer because that's clearly not the law as I linked you to.

Ok I will try another one. Thank you : )

I agree with Scott, that lawyer must be from the botton half of his graduating class. He described intestate. Intestacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia