Fritch, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

It's not automatic. To set the probate process in motion, someone (e.g. the executor in the will or another family member) has to petition the court to be appointed. Normally the person who wants to file the petition will hire a probate attorney to represent them. The question of where the probate estate should be opened is an issue of fact. You mentioned that he was temporarily living in another state. Probate should be opened in the state where the decedent last had his permanent residence. So for example, if I live in Illinois, but happen to die while on vacation on Florida, my estate should be in Illinois even though I died in Florida. It's a little trickier if you're father was actually stayed in another state for a period of months, or years. It's really a question of fact and should come back to where he intended to live on a permanent basis. But this issue can be the subject of dispute at times, in part because state inheritances laws can differ.

If the land is in a trust, you do not own it:  the trust does.  The trustee decides whether to sell the land.  The beneficiaries (apparently your husband and his two siblings) do not. If a trustee is not putting the interests of the beneficiaries first but is putting his own interests first, the beneficiaries can sue to have him removed.  But whether selling or not selling the land is putting the beneficiaries first is a big question.  You may want to take a copy of the trust agreement to a lawyer who does fiduciary litigation and discuss the specific facts.  

A spouse has a right to renounce the Will. If she remained his spouse at the time of his death then she is entitled to the spousal right to renounce the Will regardless of the intention of either party.