I recently inherited my grandmother's $10+ million estate, but there are some complications. Advice, please?

I won't tax any of the first $5,250,000. Then I'm going to hit you up for 40% of the rest. But don't forget state inheritance tax and probate costs - we all want our deserved share.

Keep $5.35M for the max/no fed taxes unless your attorney advises differently. Good luck.

correction- $5.25M and if you get your deal, move away.

I'm afraid that people on here who resent your good fortune will advise you to act against your interests by accepting less than what's rightfully yours. Your grandmother wanted you to have everything and the others not to have anything. You should be hire a top lawyer and aggressively defend your inheritance. F*ck your jealous relatives.

10 mil will buy plenty of new relatives.

Another thought; why would you want to preserve relationships with the kinds of people who would doctor legal documents to screw you over? Cut these people out of your life.

marijuologist wrote:

I'm afraid that people on here who resent your good fortune will advise you to act against your interests by accepting less than what's rightfully yours. Your grandmother wanted you to have everything and the others not to have anything. You should be hire a top lawyer and aggressively defend your inheritance. F*ck your jealous relatives.

Either the lawyers involved will get 1/3 or to 2/5 of this or your family will get a chunk. It's best to settle family matters within the family and in this case cheaper on the whole

what you need wrote:

Either the lawyers involved will get 1/3 or to 2/5 of this or your family will get a chunk. It's best to settle family matters within the family and in this case cheaper on the whole

If his uncle would act this way, he's blood...not family.

I would rather let the lawyers get 1/3 or give 100% to charity than give in to the relatives' extortion attempt or act to appease them.

I think it depends on how much you care about your family, how much money they have/earn, how much they have supported you over the years . . .

No one but you can decide how to handle this.

My father is worth $100 million and plans to leave me nothing. Sucks, but hopefully he'll leave it to a good cause.

The fact that you are soliciting advice from anyone but a lawyer lets me know you are a fool. And after your first meeting with a lawyer, go meet with another one to get another opinion.

Lawyer up son.

Also, your uncle probably committed malpractice in making a will that named himself as beneficiary.

If real:

1. Do not discuss this matter with anyone, especially family members.

2. Visit an attorney in your state who specializes in wills, estates and trusts.

3. There is a good chance that if your Gmas attorney is competent all the money is yours and you can laugh in the face of your Uncle while flipping him the bird.

That being said, I don't think your story is real. You see, your Uncle who is an attorney, and also a supposed beneficiary of her original will, would have not drafted the original will. That is an obvious violation of every state's rules of professional conduct and he would be disbarred. If you were mistaken about who drafted the original will, follow the steps above precisely.

Just my 2 cents wrote:

That being said, I don't think your story is real. You see, your Uncle who is an attorney, and also a supposed beneficiary of her original will, would have not drafted the original will. That is an obvious violation of every state's rules of professional conduct and he would be disbarred. If you were mistaken about who drafted the original will, follow the steps above precisely.

I am not a lawyer but I know a few of them and I was under the impression that a lawyer may write and be a beneficiary of a relative's will. But because I'm not a lawyer, I'm not positive, though fairly certain.

Good Problems wrote:

Thank you to the people who've chimed in with advice. I do intend to see a lawyer about this. Another concern I've thought of is what if I offer a split and then get taken to court anyway. Will it hurt me that I offered a split, making me look guilty?

Don't offer to split anything. Get a lawyer, insist that her final will be honored. She might have been angry that all the others gave up on visiting her, helping her etc. It was her choice, and you have the other attorney she went to as a witness etc.

I would just tell your mother you are going to honor your grandmother's wishes, and that maybe after you receive the inheritance, anyone who has not contested the will might be given something.

As far as her last will and how ironclad it may be, and the uncle lawyer, a lot depends on your state, and how good her last lawyer was at making it ironclad. If your whole story is true, and the lawyer who put together her last will knew of her previous will, he or she would have predicted possible problems and made sure her last will was written in an ironclad way -- I've seen wills that state that anyone who contests the will automatically gets nothing.

Assuming your story is true, it really was her choice, and it really was what she wanted -- she might have had reasons to cut everyone else out (see above) that she didn't want to share with you. Sometimes, old people get quietly angry, even mean, because family members stop coming to see them, stop coming to help them, stopped calling etc.

I've seen families where one brother was doting, the other never came to see the mother. Did the second one really deserve anything other than was the mother's choice? Nope.

Honor your grandmother's choice, and after everything is in your name, you can decide who, if anyone, you want to help.

Will's and money, often cause fights and ruin families. You'll see who in your family is really a good person, and who is not. And you might find that some of those people, based on their assumptions and greed, and how they might treat you now...are people you won't want in your life...now that you've got 10.5 baby! (Just kidding, the rest does apply though.)

Good Luck.

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

I am not a lawyer but I know a few of them and I was under the impression that a lawyer may write and be a beneficiary of a relative's will. But because I'm not a lawyer, I'm not positive, though fairly certain.

Perhaps if the beneficiary atty receives no more of the estate than had Gma died without a will, but highly unusual. No competent attorney would be involved in that, it's not worth the headache.

Well I am a lawyer (not a wills and trusts lawyer though).

In the state I am licensed in, a provision in a will making a gift to the person who drafted the will is invalid, unless reviewed by an independent attorney. Also, a presumption of undue influence arises when a principal beneficiary of a will stands in a confidential relationship to the testator, such as a lawyer-client relationship, and that person participates in executing the will.

Basically, it looks the the uncle is SOL and OP is set, assuming OP is not a troll (big assumption).

growing from a thug into a man wrote:

Well I am a lawyer (not a wills and trusts lawyer though).

In the state I am licensed in, a provision in a will making a gift to the person who drafted the will is invalid, unless reviewed by an independent attorney. Also, a presumption of undue influence arises when a principal beneficiary of a will stands in a confidential relationship to the testator, such as a lawyer-client relationship, and that person participates in executing the will.

Basically, it looks the the uncle is SOL and OP is set, assuming OP is not a troll (big assumption).

Thank you and Just My 2 Cents for clarifying further.

Law school dropout here, but I didn't fail eststes and trusts, so I may be of some help.

A will contest through a claim of undue influence, which would invalidate the new will and send it to intestacy (which is a whole other issue) is what your uncle is alleging and is extremely difficult to prove in probate court, and this would be more difficult for him by the fact you are related to her and not some lover 50 years younger than her. It would require a showing of a special relationship you had with her beyond merely being a grandkid. But most importantly, it would require ACTIVE PROCUREMENT of the new will on your part, meaning you sat in on her and her attorney meeting when the will was drafted, executed, drove her to her atty's office and coaxed ger to get a new will, etc. It is a VERY high burden.

Also, we need a lot more info. Was the will where you get everything a new will or did she amend her old will? What state are you in (due to holographic will concerns)?

Lol yes, you should maybe be be worried about your attorney uncle, but honestly, any knuckle-dragging lawyer can draft a will and have it properly executed.

Just my 2 cents wrote:

If real:

1. Do not discuss this matter with anyone, especially family members.

2. Visit an attorney in your state who specializes in wills, estates and trusts.

3. There is a good chance that if your Gmas attorney is competent all the money is yours and you can laugh in the face of your Uncle while flipping him the bird.

That being said, I don't think your story is real. You see, your Uncle who is an attorney, and also a supposed beneficiary of her original will, would have not drafted the original will. That is an obvious violation of every state's rules of professional conduct and he would be disbarred. If you were mistaken about who drafted the original will, follow the steps above precisely.

Yikes! Your last paragraph is just plain wrong. Close relatives (here the testator's own son) drafting a will in which they are a beneficiary is the one situations where drafter of the will as a beneficiary does not present a conflict if interest. That exception is in the aba model rules and comments many state statues (mine at least), and maybe even the UPC (I'm too lazy to look).