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?
“But it is my understanding that both the existing will and the new draft will would have to be submitted to probate where a probate judge would determine if the new unsigned will would be valid.”
Similar to my earlier post. Based on an evaluation of facts yet unknown I would request the lawyer to submit the preferred on along with documentation of the total circumstances.
If the unsigned was just a scrap of paper with a few notes and no date I might just toss it.
Not signed is not signed... a year, a day, a minute isn't the issue. The issue is not signed.
Since he was dying of cancer a case could be made the cancer had gone to his brain causing recent changes to be questioned.
Was there a conflict of interest with the lawyer - possible dragging his feet so the new will would not be signed 'in time'?
As someone wrote up the thread, lawyers would be more than happy to fight this out until all the money's gone... I never even stayed at a Motel 6 so any comment I've made should be taken with a grain of salt.
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