Hi, this is my first forum post and I thank anyone in advance for reading this and offering any advice, if there is any available. I will try to summarize the situation as best I can:

My mother passed away in January 2011, after a 4 month battle with lung cancer that had surprised us all, although she was a smoker. She had been married to my step-father for 20+ years, he was also the man responsible for raising us. At the time of my mother's passing I was living in California and immediately made arrangements to move back home in May, to assist my step-father with his finances, and I took the responsibility of settling everything regarding my mother's previous bills. There was not an estate set up because the 5-acre plot and home that my parents had owned since 1989 was in both of their names. There were no life insurance policies set up for my mother and that meant there was no need to go into probate.

Within a very short amount of time after her passing, the step-father started a relationship with an influential woman and given his state of grieiving and his type of personality, i truly feel that he has been in a vulnerable and impressionable state of mind. By July I was no longer taking care of the finances for him, the new woman in his life was. The ironic thing about it is that his spending skyrocketed once he met her. One of his methods of showing a woman how much he likes her is by constantly spending money on her. So of course, his bills that he had planned on paying off with me through a process that i had put in place they were no longer being paid without tapping into the savings account. A conversation regarding his rampant spending ended in an argument. A conversation regarding this sudden relationship with another woman ended up in an argument.

Towards the end of July he began staying at her place often, he even went so far as to take a bunch of tools, gardening equipment, and even the family safe to her property. My mother's will is in that safe.

In August he began staying at her place on a permanent level while I continued to stay at my chidlhood home, tending to the property and maintaining the place. There were a lot of things that my mother would have tended to if she were still alive, and i have been trying to honor her memory by doing exactly as she would have done out here, gardening, tending to the property, etc. During this time that he was staying with this lady I did not here from him until very recently. I get a message from him saying that we (my brother and i, brother no longer lives there) need to start moving our things out of there because he is going to start renting the place from him. my step-father has always known how much I want to buy this place someday, and how important I feel it is to keep the property in the family name. There is a great sentimental value to this place. The conversation regarding me renting this place ended in another heated argument and I haven't heard from him in a week. the conversation ended with him wanting me to get my things out now and he doesn't care to see me again. I feel that he is now someone that I don't recognize, harken back to the grieving process, I suppose.

Here is where my questions come in. Regarding my mother's will, written in 2001, from what I can recall of looking at it i believe both her and my step-father had the will written together and they basically left everything to each other, and if either one of them should pass away later, everything would go to my brother and I. But given what has transpired in the past few months I can't help but belive that if my mother knew my step-father would become corrupted by this new lady (who has several properties of her own that she rents out) and that he would be deliberately destroying his relationship with his two sons, she would have changed her will to include my brother and i in a more substantial inheritance. I firmly believe that she would have left 50% of the property to my step-father and the remaining 50% between my brothers and I. The only thing is, how can I challenge this? And how, if needed, could I recover the will so that I may have a professional look through it? Is there anything I can do other than to say goodbye to this place, knowing full well that if my mother wasn't busy dealing with an aggressive battle with lung cancer she must have known what kind of person my step-father is, she would have taken the time to change her will. What can I do, if anything?

If she had a will and left everything to him, there is not much you can do. If there had been no will then since he is a step parent there are some laws in place to protect the children of the deceased parent. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

It just doesn't seem right to me then, that a step parent can take 100% of everything and then when he passes away he could potentially leave the natural born children of the deceased parent with 0% of what should be rightfully there's. Are you sure there is no possibility of contesting the will? Had my mother known it was going to be this way and had she known her own kids were going to be shut out like we have been, she would have made changes to her will.

You certainly can attempt to contest the will, but I would suggest that you not try to do it without an attorney. At least speak with one about your options.