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Need to apply for administrator of estate. Wife past away in 2010. 3 children living out of state and will not provide their current address. Assets of wife are less than 10,000 dollars, some penny stock involved. House is in my name only. Do I need a lawyer or can I file at the court house myself? I have the deaf certificate and we were married. How do I file and list children names and I do not have their address.
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: New York Already Tried: Calling administrator court house in new york on how to file. Called several lawyer about how much it cost to file and I can not aford them.
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As the estate is very small, you don't need to do a formal probate. You can use a small estate affidavit, which is a form that gets filed with the Surrogate Court which asks the court to give you the right to take possession of your wife's assets and distribute them to the lawful heirs/beneficiaries.
It's something you can do on your own, without a lawyer. In fact, the New York Courts have an online program that you can use that will walk you through preparing the form. However, you are going to need the addresses of the children. There is simply no way around this, regardless of what you were to file -the addresses of any possible heirs must be included.
If you would like any additional information or have more questions please don’t hesitate to ask!