Estate Firearms Without a Will

[Nardo1895]

I know someone who wants help disposing of her deceased father's firearms. Apparently he died without a will so the estate needs to go through probate. There are two direct heirs (siblings).

I have dealt with similar situations, but they were not cases where probate was involved. Do any of you know how that works? I assume the court decides who the legal heirs are, what specific items each will receive, and what their share of the remaining estate will be. But I don't know how detailed probate gets. Specifically, will every firearm he owns be listed in the probate documents, or will it just say "the proceeds of the estate will be split 50/50 between the two heirs" or something to that effect?

I assume she cannot dispose of any of his firearms until probate is complete. Once it is complete, I assume the executor can then sign any PPT (or other methods of disposal) docs using her CDL and the probate docs? How will the DROS work when she sells a handgun that was registered to her father? Will DOJ bounce it since the seller and owner don't match?

Do you know if she can submit an AFS Request for Firearms Records for her father? That form requires a Notary so I assume she could not submit it until probate is complete.

I realize many of these are attorney and not FFL questions, but I figured some of you may have been though a situation like this and would know how it works.

[Librarian]

The 'top structure' of intestate inheritance is governed by Probate Code, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/f...er=1.&article= in this case, probably

6402.

Except as provided in Section 6402.5, the part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse, under Section 6401, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes as follows:

(a) To the issue of the decedent, the issue taking equally if they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent, but if of unequal degree those of more remote degree take in the manner provided in Section 240.