[bluehos]

My dad passed away last week and has five children with my mother and two children with his mistress. My parents are divorced now and my father has never remarried. Upon his death not one of his five children from his marriage were notified. The oldest daughter of the mistress who is no relation to my dad has planned his funeral, picked out his burial site etc. without notifying us. We have no access to any of his papers, insurance, will (if he has one) etc. He died at the hospital and we don't even know the cause of death because we were never contacted. They immediately had him moved without our knowledge. Legally as his oldest daughter and next of kin what can I do to ensure that me and my siblings are able to make sure these people are stopped from taking over my father's entire estate. My father would have never excluded us from everything.

[RubyPitbull]

bluehos, I am so deeply sorry for your loss.

I think your best bet at this point is to seek out an estate attorney in your area. Ask friends, neighbors, co-workers,. if there is someone they can recommend. Be prepared to give as many details as you can about the entire situation to the attorney. He/she will know what to do. The attorney can do a public record search to see if a will was filed. If one wasn't, he/she can begin procedures to start searching for any monies that your father had, who was listed as next of kin on the death certificate, and put this "other family" on notice that you have hired an attorney and will be launching an investigation to sort out this mess. He/she may come up with info that you may not be aware of, such as this other woman or her daughter listed as the executor of his estate, or there is always the possibility that he did marry this other woman and never said anything to you or your siblings. I hope that is not the case, but the attorney will uncover what he/she can for you, and then with that info in hand, will advise you as to where to go from there.