How to Find a Will After Someone Dies

Search the home first

Start where the person kept important papers: a desk, a filing cabinet, a fireproof box, the folder with the house deed and car titles. Look for the original, not a photocopy; courts want the signed original, and a copy raises the question of whether the original was revoked. While searching, set aside anything else the estate will need: deeds, titles, insurance policies, and statements. Our executor checklist covers what to gather.

The safe deposit box

If the box was rented jointly, the co-renter can open it. If it was rented alone, the bank will not simply hand over the contents, and most states have a procedure for exactly this moment: a limited search of a deceased renter’s box for a will, burial instructions, or insurance policies, done with a bank officer present. Some states let the bank allow it on request from a close relative; others want a short court order first. Call the branch, say the renter died, and ask what their will-search procedure requires.

Ask the people who would know

• The attorney who handled their affairs, or any lawyer whose name appears in the person’s papers. Law firms keep original wills for clients, and a firm that closed usually transferred its files somewhere findable through the state bar.
• The financial advisor, accountant, or insurance agent, who often knows whether an estate plan existed and who drafted it.
• Close family and the people named as executor in any earlier will you know about.

Check the probate court

Two reasons to call the probate court in the county where the person lived. Some states and counties accept wills for safekeeping deposit during life, so the will may already be sitting at the courthouse. And if anyone has started a case, the will offered for probate is a public record you can see. Our county court directory has the phone number and address for every probate court, and our probate records guide covers how to search case files.

If no will turns up

The estate proceeds as if there is no will: state intestate succession law distributes property to the closest relatives in a fixed order, and the court appoints an administrator instead of an executor. If you are confident a signed will existed, say so at the probate court; some states allow a lost will to be proved with strong evidence of its contents, which is a question for a probate attorney in that state.

Once the will question is settled either way, a short assessment can show whether the estate needs probate at all.