So my Mother-in-law passed away, with her shirt not quite as squared away as I would have hoped. I'm completely ignorant to this stuff...COMPLETELY ignorant.

Here's how she left it.

1...my wife was power of attorney, but there appears to be no sort of advance directive. As far as I can tell, the POA is now essentially over (correct?).

2...the will had not been updated so nice my FIL's death. The will left him as executor, with the provision that if he preceded her in death my wife and her brother would split the estate equally.

So now what? The immediate need is to settle her affairs, pay her bills, etc. The long term need is to get my hands on some of that money (just kidding, and it ain't much)