A tangled affair

Dear EPL Transitions,

When I was eight years old and my sister was six, our mother died. She had been sick for years, and we had been living with my mother's parents. Grandma and Grandpa were like our real parents. They helped us with our school, attended all of our concerts and plays and treated us like their own. My father remarried and moved out of state. My Grandma had arthritis and got progressively worse as the years rolled by. About the time my sister graduated from high school, my Grandmother could no longer walk and was confined to a wheel chair. Grandpa tried to take care of her, but it got too much for him and he finally suffered a heart attack and died. I moved back home to take care of Grandma.

Last month, I heard that my father had died. His wife, our stepmother, had also died last year. His wife had Alzheimer's and had fallen and broken her hip. She never recovered. My father was a stock broker and had a rather large portfolio of stocks and some bonds. I don't know if our father had a will or not, but we got a call from my Dad's sister telling me about the stocks and claiming that there was no will. What should I do? My father died in Arizona and my mother died in California.

I can't leave my Grandmother alone for any length of time. What do you think I should do?

Undecided in Arizona

Dear Undecided,

Probate is the process of administering an estate to distribute the assets to the heirs. You certainly need to get more information and find out if your father left a will. Although I cannot give you legal advice in a column like this, you do need to consult a qualified attorney in Arizona about your father's estate. Although you may have to travel to Arizona, you can still act as Personal Representative while living outside the state.