Property rights in washington state.

I'm sorry to hear that your start in life has been such a challenge, and has involved so much loss. Hopefully, you can put yourself in a position to start your adulthood off in as positive as possible of a fashion.

You indicate that your father had a will. A will is only part of the estate plan; beneficiary designations on accounts, and the survivor beneficiary designation for social security are generally not affected by the will. If the entire estate including the survivor benefits were left to you, individually, without any trusts established since you were a minor at the time, then you should ultimately be able to transition those resources to you in your individual capacity. The smoothest way would be to achieve this through working with your mother in an agreed fashion. If that's not possible, you may need some outside assistance. Many attorneys will do a free or low-cost initial consultation, and it sounds like it would be worth your time to meet with a local attorney there to discuss your rights and the factual details of your individual case.

I would encourage you to consider community-based mediation if you and your mother don't see eye to eye about the finances -- mediation can take place privately, outside of court, to allow you and your mom and a neutral third party to work through the conflict and ultimately (hopefully) reach resolution. As hurtful as a parent's alcoholism is, you can be the bigger person by making choices to reduce the conflict with your mom and work toward a positive resolution to this dispute, and mediation may be less damaging to the relationship in the long term than high conflict litigation. It's still important to speak with an attorney so that you know what your legal rights are, but mediation may help with reaching agreement if you and your mom are in conflict.