Community Chat

[terrier3]

I have a very greedy cousin on my late dad's side of the family.

She actually showed up at my dad's SIL's hospital deathbed. My aunt hadn't seen her in 20 years and didn't know who she was!

She said ""Hi...how are you feeling? Do you still have all the Steuben crystal? Can I have some? I always loved your crystal pieces!"" We had to get her removed from the hospital.

Later we found out she did this with anyone and everyone she was related to...just showed up and started asking for stuff!

[occasionalrain]

On 5/7/2014 glb613 said:

On 5/7/2014 nantucket shore said:

A will means nothing, it's just that persons' wishes.

My mom had some transfer of death deeds in place and they want them changed.

I'm the POA but mom can sign herself. It's really a mess and I called the courthouse and understand as long as it has her signature on it, it can be changed and they don't need me at all to do this.

I figure after my mom is really gone, I won't have a family at all.

I just talked to a customer that came in and she said something similar happened 3 years ago with her dad and she has lost her family too.

Where did you go to law school? A will is a legal document and means a lot!

Wills can be contested and often those contesting and their attorneys end up with a big share that was not what the testator wanted. Think Leona Helmsley.

[Snowpuppy]

I left ""home"" as a teenager and never went back.

My siblings can fight over the nothing was left to us.

[Suziepeach]

My daddy had everything in order way before he passed away- even the deed to the house was in my sister and my names. My sister and I were asked would there be any problem with the will and we both agreed NOPE.. so it was all set in stone for us..

[Suziepeach]

On 5/7/2014 Snowpuppy said:

I left "home" as a teenager and never went back.

My siblings can fight over the nothing was left to us.

Snowpuppy, I am so sorry.

[Allegheny]

Even the best planning doesn't guarentee there won't be problems. My Dad made his will very specific. He intentionally excluded one of my siblings from his will, as he put it "for reasons she is aware of" and left her $1.

She and her husband turned around and made a rather substantial claim against his estate, indicating they had an agreement with my father that he was to compensate them for improvements they made to his property which they were using and then basically abandoned. That was a bunch of you know what... Our father would have advised us of this and no legal documents were ever found to prove this. They had several years to address this, but waited till after he died. Well off to court we went just on a matter of principle. His estate wasn't that big, but we were angry that she would stoop to such. She didn't even bring her sorry butt to the court house, sent her husband. I guess the judge thought us two were ganging up on her because he did advise he thought her claim had some merit and recommend we agree on a settlement. Needless to say, my brother and I have never forgiven her and never will. In fact I kind of feel sorry for her because she has to live with the fact that she alienated the only family she has left, all over greed.

Whew, sorry I had to get that off my chest..

[chickenbutt]

Wow, Allegheny! That's just awful.

That the judge would even think there is ANY merit to their claim is disappointing. I could see if they had anything to present that would support their claim but, geez, without any evidence or anything on top of what he said in his will - it seems that would lead the judge to not even consider their claim. *shaking head*

My 'settlement' would be - Here's another dollar. Now you've doubled your inheritance. BAH!

[circles]

we had it happen in our family....it is disgusting to see those who have plenty of money..demanding their share of such a small amount of money...that was going to be given to two very poor aunts....

seemingly very nice people turn into very ugly people...never spoke to them again...

I am sorry you are going through this...

[Allegheny]

On 5/7/2014 chickenbutt said:

Wow, Allegheny! That's just awful.

That the judge would even think there is ANY merit to their claim is disappointing. I could see if they had anything to present that would support their claim but, geez, without any evidence or anything on top of what he said in his will - it seems that would lead the judge to not even consider their claim. *shaking head*

My 'settlement' would be - Here's another dollar. Now you've doubled your inheritance. BAH!

All she had was a "letter" she said she had sent to my Dad about 2 years before he died. It was not prepared by an attorney, notorized, or any proof it was even received by my father. We figured she typed up something after his death and photocopied it. Reason I feel it was a phony document, is I know my Dad would have blown his stack if he had received that letter and would have been in his attorney's office faster than a jack rabbit.

We only settled as it was getting too expensive to pursue further and we wanted to get her out of lives.

[maryebrown_1]

Nantucket, I'm so sorry you are going through this. When my Mom died, my Dad asked me and my sister to go through her jewelry and choose what we wanted. Since I already had 2 kids, I wanted her "mother's ring" - it had my 5 sibs and my birthstones on it. I also wanted Her mother's (My Nana's) ring, a square blue sapphire in white gold, since sapphire is my birthstone. I told my sister she should have Mom's Charm Bracelet (worth a fortune), since she liked yellow gold and almost all of the charms were added when she and my 2 younger brothers were young and growing up. As children they were always fascinated with that bracelet so my sister was thrilled to inherit it. My Dad died 5 years later and he wanted me to be his Executrix. I had to decline (I lived in PA (with my DH and 2 kids) and he, along with my 2 brothers, lived in CT). So my brother was Executor and he did an excellent job in settling the estate. He got into it with the lawyer when he was dragging his butt, and everything was settled in 10 months. My brother, the Executor, got to buy Dad's house with his inheritance, and I got Dad's car (and we sorely needed a reliable car for the family, Dad knew that) as well as cash. The other 4 sibs received cash too as the total was divided equally 6 ways. There was no drama and everyone was civil, so I was fortunate.