How can I find out if my father had a Will drafted before he died?

Contact the county clerk where he lived and ask if he filed a will. Contact his attorney.

You would check through all of his paperwork, first of all. You might check with his attorney, if you know that he had one. You might check his wallet or card file for an attorney business card. You would see if he had a safe deposit box. You would check with the probate court to see if they have a Will he filed with them. If you still cannot find anything, I would assume that he did not have a Will. 70% of the population has no estate planning.

You should contact the local attorney Bar Association to inquire of its members whether or not any of them prepared estate planning documents for your father.

The question you are asking is about a legal system called probate. The "probate process" is what happens when someone has passed away and their estate is valued and divided among the decedent's (meaning the deceased person) heirs. The details of this process vary slightly from state to state, but in general an individual who expects to be an heir will file a document called a petition for probate, and that will get the ball rolling. Once that happens, an executor will be appointed; usually this is the spouse of the decedent, but it can be a child if there is no living spouse. In the filing, a list is given of all the people who might be heirs of the decedent, and those people are sent a letter informing them that the estate is in probate. One of these people may be aware of a will, and they would bring it to the attention of the court. If you are concerned about being left out of an inheritance, you should retain an attorney in South Carolina; he or she will be able to advise you on the specific laws of that jurisdiction and perhaps file probate proceedings on your behalf, if no one else is.

Contact an attorney in that state and have him conduct an investigation for you to determine if he had a will and if there is an ongoing probate.

You can ask if someone knows, you can check to see if it has been filed with the Orphan's court or register of Wills in the county he lived, you can publish something to see if anyone knows anything about one, you can contact the bar in the county or state to see if an attorney has record of preparing one.