There are few parts of the law quite as fraught as succession. As the great wealth transfer gets under way, wrangling about who gets what is tearing families apart
Tricky stuff. Talk to your family about this stuff before you/they die.
Where things seem to get messiest is if someone gets an ‘advance’ on what they’ll receive in the will, except it’s not written into the will so there is disagreement on whether they should get a full share or not.
the will only gets so far. for example there have been cases where children of a family have completely abandoned their parent/s, and a 3rd part good samaritan came along to help said person for years before their eventual death, and the will gave the inheritance to the good Samaritan, which causes the blood children to object.
the only clearcut way is to have the parties in attendance while the will is being written so that any objections wpuld get aired out while said person is alive and can make the call
You don’t need everyone present while the will is being written though. That changes nothing. People can object all they want, but if the will is done correctly the objecting and challenging is pointless and just wastes money.
Why is it so hard for people to accept a dying persons wishes? If they want all their money to be donated to the first homeless person that walks past the closest bus stop to their house, that’s what needs to be done. No one is owed an inheritance.
As the article mentioned, wills are often contested. The cases they presented were all from people with wills, but the surviving parties didn’t accept what the got in the will.
Get your parents to write an actual will.
Where things seem to get messiest is if someone gets an ‘advance’ on what they’ll receive in the will, except it’s not written into the will so there is disagreement on whether they should get a full share or not.
the will only gets so far. for example there have been cases where children of a family have completely abandoned their parent/s, and a 3rd part good samaritan came along to help said person for years before their eventual death, and the will gave the inheritance to the good Samaritan, which causes the blood children to object.
the only clearcut way is to have the parties in attendance while the will is being written so that any objections wpuld get aired out while said person is alive and can make the call
You don’t need everyone present while the will is being written though. That changes nothing. People can object all they want, but if the will is done correctly the objecting and challenging is pointless and just wastes money.
Why is it so hard for people to accept a dying persons wishes? If they want all their money to be donated to the first homeless person that walks past the closest bus stop to their house, that’s what needs to be done. No one is owed an inheritance.
Personally I’ve emailed my will to all interested parties so they have plenty of time to object.
That doesn’t change anything though. They can still challenge the will when you die.
Just make sure the will is done by the book with no reason for any challenges to succeed and you’re good.
As the article mentioned, wills are often contested. The cases they presented were all from people with wills, but the surviving parties didn’t accept what the got in the will.
If the will is done correctly then no amount of contesting matters.
That’s why a lot of wills add a clause that states anyone challenging the will automatically has their portion changed to $1.