Family problems

Hello I am very new to this, My father had passed away almost 1 month ago and I live far away from my mother but still trying to assist her with all of the legal issues.
My question is Washington State does not recognize the common law marriage but they do recognize the putative spouse, now that my father has passed how can I help her to make sure every thing that he had will be hers' and not awarded to the state?

I am not that familiar with the laws in your state. Another poster here is an attorney in your state so he may be able to assist you more. But my understanding of the putative spouse is the spouse who believes them are married but find out later, through no fault of their own that they are not , in fact, married.

This would be in a case such as one where a woman marries a man who is already married to someone else without her knowing. When she finds out, and realizes she cannot be married to someone who is already married, she becomes the putative spouse. Generally speaking, a putative marriage is one in which there is an impediment to the couple actually being married. Once the impediment is removed, they are free to consider themselves married.

I don't know if that applies to their situation or not. The putative spouse is clearly different from common law. Putative spouse is one who has every reason to believe they are married but finds out later they are not as a result of the other parties action.

Sorry for your loss.