Posted on 10/08/2020 2:11:51 PM PDT by woofer2425
"Asking For A Friend"....Asking for opinion....preferably from an attorney, but all are welcome to comment. An older gentleman passed away recently from complications of battling cancer. The question has to do with his will. Originally his will was written to leave his estate, which included several pieces of unimproved land an IRA and Annuity to his niece and sister. He was married only once for a very short period, just a few months, then divorced. Never married again. He also befriended a woman with young children and felt some sympathy for here and helped her monetarily buying her a house and paying the mortgage. Since learning of his worsening condition and ultimate death due to cancer, he began to rewrite his will leaving most of the assets to the two women and other "strangers" and very little to the original beneficiaries. His family felt that he was making some poor choices for several reasons. The day he was to sign the new will, he died...was not able to sign. The attorney, who has been working on both old will in the past and new will now, suggested that we follow the wishes of the older gentleman because that is what he wanted and it would have happened if he didn't die before signing. But, to fulfill those wishes, the executor of the will would have to "gift" the various monies and properties to the intended recipients because the "new" will was never signed, recorded or in force. He told the women of what to expect in the will, the others are unaware of the gift he was to bestow upon them. What would you do? Would you follow his wishes and voluntarily gift the monies and properties, or would you follow the old will that is legally in force, or somewhere in between?
As I said, my views are based on CA law only. Results may vary elsewhere. Unsigned will not admissible to probate. Likewise oral “will.” Of course it’s possible that the will can be contested, but in CA the grounds are statutory: fraud, menace, duress, undue influence. Changed his mind but didn’t revoke the will is not a ground for contest. Nothing in the poster’s fact pattern would suggest any of the CA statutory grounds are present here.
Since the new will wasn’t signed, it’s not a legal document.
It’s up to the beneficiaries in the active will to decide if they want to honor his second will and I’m guessing the other women who were looking to hit the jackpot with this one, won’t be.
Likely he was not in the best mental condition when they got to him.
As an aside, a friend thought she was going to lose her entire inheritance to a gold digger who began dating he divorced and elderly father. Happened he died before either getting married or signing the documents, I don’t remember which. They all knew she was just after the money.
That’s all younger women ever go for when they are dating elderly men. There’s no other reason to date that far out of your age range.
That happened to my best friend when her greedy sister contested everything in an attempt to get it all.
Nobody got anything.
“Not in Louisiana if it violates the Code Napoleon as adopted and amended in that state.”
LOL!
Laws are laws. It is how laws are interpreted. All about which parish you file in and which judge you get.
Ain't it the truth.
“The new Will was not signed. It can’t be entered”
False
Were his dying wished tape recorded?
Very sketchy that this was all happening at the very end.
The dying old man could have been manipulated by outsiders. It happens all the time.
Therefore go with the written will.
“You keep bringing up points which haven’t been determined as fact. First you propose that the executor hid the existence of other unsigned draft versions of wills, and now you have the probate court already have made a ruling on what will has priority.”
I never proposed that he hid the unsigned will.
The second sentence I don’t know what you are saying.
“My advice to the executor, based solely on common sense, with no experience in the legal profession, “
My advice to the executer is to ignore the advice of non-lawyers that only have a limited, third-hand knowledge of the situation. But I suspect he already knows that.
So are you going to answer osage orange’s question in post 82 about whether you are a lawyer or not?
“The dying old man could have been manipulated by outsiders. It happens all the time.
Therefore go with the written will.”
What if he wasn’t and you had good faith that this was his desire?
Troll
GO WITH THE ORIGINAL SIGNED WILL!!!!!
I have just spent the last several years of my life and literally tens of thousands of dollars in fees to clean up almost the same situation.
This will be contested no matter which will you follow, or what anyone named in said will says.
1. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING
2. Only follow the letter of the will DO NOT IMPROVISE OR INTERPRET last wishes. this is the job of a probate judge.
3. IMMEDIATELY get a really good family law/will/trust attorney (good ones are EXPENSIVE)
4. The opposing attorneys will be “contingency” layers who will work for a cut of ANY settlement as well as hourly fees.
5.Be prepared to be called every vile name in the book by people you would not expect. (and they will turn against you too)
6.Unless you are blessed, and there is no contention, it will still take several months in probate, and several months after to finally EXECUTE the will.
7. Seek help and counseling from a clergy person you can trust. You will start off strong, but the opposition lawyers main strategy will be to overwhelm you and wear you down.
Best of luck.
Sean
I didn’t think so.
Probate courts sucks. Not following documentation can end up in court and a hassle and a loss for attorney fees.
You: "Less money than if the women contest the signed will and sue the executer for hiding the unsigned will."
The second sentence I don’t know what you are saying.
Me: ...and now you have the probate court already have made a ruling on what will has priority.
You: "Not if he follows the instructions of the will accepted by the probate court."
Any particular will being accepted by the court obviously hasn't happened yet. Or I guess another possibility is that the signed will HAS already been presented to the court, and he'd be a damned fool to not follow it's terms until the court tells him otherwise.
“As I said, my views are based on CA law only.”
Most states have similar laws but CA courts have ruled against unsigned wills.
Do you not know what ‘if’ means?
Concur. I was an attorney and this situation actually came up in one of my law school courses. The law professor stated that the only way to make this work is if the beneficiaries under the old will all agree to the new "unsigned will" and they go in front of a judge and the judge allows it (The judge still may not allow it,).
At first glance, it sounds like the attorney wants to get some billable hours.
How many times are you going to ask me “what if” questions?
I’m going with the will. End of story.
Yes if there is no signed will.
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