waiting a few days

I have a phone consultation set up with my mom's attorney who just did her will and healthcare directive. It's next Tuesday afternoon, but I did have a long chat with the legal assistant from his office. She first said "ok, my first thought is why is her investment advisor giving her legal advice and telling her what a judge would decide?!" I said it was mine thought, too. She said no, her step children do not have any rights to her money, after my step dad passed. It is her decision who to leave it to. But, just to get final/attorney clarification on it, she set up me a phone call for next Tuesday. She also told me that the standard "test" they use to determine if a person can make their own decisions on stuff like this (are of sound mind and body) is they would ask her can she state her name, her birthdate, and her child's(ren) name? If she can do that, she is considered of sound mind to make estate/legal decisions. We will do whatever the attorney says is best to do regarding this.

I keep going back to the fact that my inlaws changed their will late in life (MIL was 80 and in very poor health and FIL was 75 at the time) to remove one of their children from their will. This was all legal and they had every right to do this (whether it was fair, depends on who you are asking, right?). She had no right to contest it. It was their decision. They specifically spelled it out in their will they were leaving her out.

I just want to know what she is legally required to do and if she's not required to include them at 50% then it's her decision as to what she considers fair. Everyone will be different. My inlaws considered it fair to leave out one of their children. Bill Gates considers it fair to leave nothing to his children. My dd said she would not consider it fair if her brother, who has been estranged from us since he became an adult, was entitled to half, if we didn't not want him to get half. Everyone's "fair" is going to be different.

It was jointly her and my step dads money. It was not money he had before they were married for 35 years. It wasn't mine or my step siblings money. When he died it became her money to do with whatever she wanted to. She could have blown through it all, if that's what she wanted. She could leave it all to a cat charity. It's not our money.

If the situation were reversed and my mom died 12 years ago and I never had a relationship with my step dad after that, if I never called him, I would honestly not expect him to leave me a dime. 

And when her investment guy is saying that's what J would have wanted....I just TOTALLY remembered something my mom told me years ago, when my dad was still alive. They were doing their estate planning and my oldest step brother told my dad he didn't need to leave him anything. He was very well off financially and said he and his wife didn't need it. Use his share of the money to pay for grandkids (he does not have kids) college...which they very kindly did. Though it ended up not being a big expense for my kids. My son just got a 2 year community college degree and did it through high school, so only had to pay books and a small quarterly fee. My dd did the same with her first 2 years of college and then went to a state college, so my mom (my dad had passed by then) only had to pay for 2 years at the 4 year university. I'm not sure about the other 2 grandchildren (only one stepchild had kids), but assuming they also did. Though I'll bet the one girl got a full scholarship - she was a total brain and even graduated high school at like 16, as she skipped 2 grades.

I am anxious to here what the attorney has to say about it all