What happens if your father has passed away with no will and his mothers estate has not been settled yet?

Answer 1

This can become complicated and should be handled by professionals. Someone will need to start the probate of the father's estate immediately, so that debts can be paid (including taxes), and father's remaining assets collected for distribution according to intestacy laws of the local jurisdiction. The grandmother's estate will need to be settled within a short time, to determine if the father's estate has anything coming, not to mention dealing with anyone else who has a statutory claim to part of that estate.

Answer 2

If a parent has no will when he (or she) dies, his assets are distributed by other means. If he had accounts with pay-on-death provisions and named beneficiaries (like a bank account or retirement account with a named beneficiary) then those provisions determine where that money goes. Everything else automatically becomes part of the parent's "estate."

Then, the assets in the estate are distributed according to the law of "intestacy" in that state. The process that handles this is called "probate" and is handled by your local court, usually a superior court. The process can be really slow or really efficient, depending on your state. The laws of intestacy are very common sense and usually distribute the assets to the parent's spouse first, and if no spouse, to the children of the spouse. Only if no kin of the parent can be found will the property "escheat" to the state (the state gets the assets) but this is quite rare. If you want to find out more, look up the process of probate in your area - probably on your county superior court website.