On 2014-08-09 21:39, Janet Wilder wrote:
>
> I can tell you stories of entire fortunes being dissipated by angry
> siblings. No one ever wins except the lawyers in these cases.
>
> People who have a lot of assets should ALWAYS go to the best estate
> planning lawyers. I guaranty they will pay less in legal fees to draft a
> good estate plan than their children will pay in lawyers fees to fight a
> bad one.
>
> When I did my first will, after divorcing the father of my children, I
> left my jewelry and personal effects to my two (they were both living
> then) daughters. I directed my executor that should there be any
> disagreement between them, he was to take the property, sell it and
> donate the proceeds to the charity of my choice. If you can't play
> nicely, you get nothing. Mommy from the grave. :-)
>

My wife's late brother had a habit of procrastinating and had talked
about changing his will. He had a share in a piece of property that was
being devloped and a chalet a few doors down from a ski resort. He was
trying to figure a way to leave it to his kids at some sort of trust. He
never got around to it and dropped dead at the age of 61. Since he never
changed his will everything went to his ex wife. When the investment
property was sold she got somewhere in the range of $1million. The
chalet is probably worth close to that now.