“A family from the United Kingdom has made international news, as a result of an alleged will forgery fueled by a mother-in-law’s disdain for her daughter’s husband.”
When Gillian Williams died in May 2017, it’s unlikely that she expected to be at the center of an international spotlight on her family’s life. She left behind a married daughter, Julie Fairs, who is accused, along with her husband Brian, of falsifying a signature on her mother’s last will and testament. The mother’s own sister testified that her sister would never have left her daughter anything, because of how much she disliked her son-in-law, reports Above the Law in the article “What To Do When You Hate Your Son-In-Law: A Practical Lesson in Estate Planning.”
The matter became public when it went to trial. There’s been a lot of nasty family business being shared. Most people avoid going to trial for will contests, since the underlying emotions come out in full view.
Not everyone has friendly family relationships with in-laws. Frequently, the in-law relationship is prickly at best. There is no law that you must like your son-in-law. However, the law presumes that you like your child enough to include her in your estate, regardless of how you feel about her spouse. That means that if there is no surviving spouse, children are permitted to be the “natural object of your bounty.” In other words, these are the individuals who will receive your assets when you die, based on social and public policy and the law.
There are issues in estate planning, when a person wants to exclude a child because of their dislike of the child’s spouse. You may want to exclude a child out of concern that the spouse will mishandle the money or benefit from the money in a divorce. Sometimes parents can’t get past their dismay over a child marrying against their wishes. Disinheritance is not an unusual punishment. However, increased scrutiny is going to be applied to the review of a will, when a child is excluded.
When one child is disinherited, it colors their relationship with their siblings. The beneficiaries and the executor are left to defend the decedent’s decision. That is not easy to do, unless an explanation of why this happened was done beforehand.
There are options to disinheritance, if the child’s spouse is an issue. A beneficiary’s share can be held in a continuing trust, so the spouse does not have access to the funds. The assets can be protected and preserved, in the event of a divorce or just for general money security. It should be recognized that while inheritances are generally protected in divorce, the second the monies are co-mingled, they become joint property. A trust is often the best way to protect an inheritance in this situation.
Another tactic is for the person to skip a generation and instead make a bequest to the grandchildren. The option works best when the funds are not significant, since the parent may be insulted by the decision to leave a bequest to their children and this could pit the child against their own child (the grandchild).
Dividing the estate among the children in unequal shares can be done so as not to completely disinherit a child, but to leave less money. This also holds the potential for creating bad feelings between family members.
The last will and testament is a very permanent document and may not be the right forum to be used to let feelings be expressed or take a stand about an unfavorable life decision by an adult child. The impact of this decision can also have long lasting effects, including lawsuits and family fighting. It is also likely to create a battle between the child and their spouse.
A conversation with an estate planning attorney, who has likely seen this situation hundreds of times in their practice, should be able to help sort out the best solution. There may be a way to avoid conflict, or at least to make sure everyone is clear from the get-go, as to what is going to happen in the future, and why.
Reference: Above the Law (March 12, 2019) “What To Do When You Hate Your Son-In-Law: A Practical Lesson in Estate Planning”
“一個來自英國的家庭成了國際新聞，因為一位岳母對女兒的丈夫的蔑視而導致偽造遺囑。”
當Gillian Williams姆斯於2017年5月去世時，她沒有想到她的家庭生活能成為國際焦點。她遺下的已婚女兒Julie Fairs，和女兒的丈夫Brian一起偽造了她母親的遺囑和遺囑上的簽名。這位母親的妹妹作證說，她姐姐永遠不會給女兒留下任何東西，因為她不喜歡她的女婿，在 Above the Law 的“What To Do When You Hate Your Son-In-Law: A Practical Lesson in Estate Planning.” 一文報導。
這件事在審判時就公開了。有很多不愉快的家事被公開。大多數人都想避免爭產訴訟，因為內在情緒都被全面公開。
不是每個人都與姻親有良好關係。通常姻親關係都是難以應付的。沒有法律規定你必須喜歡你的女婿。然而，法律假定您不會因為不喜歡子女的配偶而不留財產給子女。這意味著，如果您沒有在生配偶，子女便是“繼承財產的自然人選”換句話說，根據社會和公共政策和法律，在你去世後他們將繼承你的資產 。
當一個人因為不喜歡子女的配偶而不想把子女包括在其中時，資產規劃便存在問題。你可能想要排除一個子女，因為擔心其配偶會錯誤處理這筆錢或從離婚中獲益。有時父母會因不滿子女的婚嫁對象而始終未能釋懷。剝奪子女的繼承權不是不尋常的懲罰。然而，當子女被排除在外時，遺囑將受到加強審查。
當一個子女被剝奪了繼承權時，就會改變他們與兄弟姐妹的關係。受益人和遺囑執行人留下來為去世的人的決定辯護。這並不容易，除非當人事先做出解釋為什麼會發生這種情況。
如果子女的配偶存在問題，剝奪子女的繼承權並非必然的選擇。受益人的部份可以以信託來持有，因此配偶無法獲得。這樣資產不會因為離婚或一般原故而失去。需承認，雖然遺產通常在離婚時得到保護，但一旦金錢混在一起便馬上成為共同財產。在這種情況下，信託便是保護繼承資產的最佳方式。
另一種策略是跳過一代人，遺贈給孫兒。當資金不多時，該選擇最有效，因為父母可能會因財產是留給他們的子女而非他們而介懷，這可能會讓子女和孫兒間產生矛盾。
可以將子女之間的財產劃分為不平等份，以免完全剝奪子女的繼承權，但這樣做也可能對家人間造成介芥蒂。
遺囑是一份文件，可能不適合用來表達感情或對成年子女的不利生活決定表態。這決定也可能產生長期影響，包括訴訟和家庭糾紛。它也可能在子女和他們的配偶之間製造鬥爭。
與資產計劃律師的對話，他們可能遇到這種情況數百次，應該能夠幫助找到最佳解決方案。可能有一種方法可以避免衝突，或者至少確保每個人都能從一開始就明白，將來會發生什麼，以及為什麼會這樣。
參考: Above the Law (March 12, 2019) “What To Do When You Hate Your Son-In-Law: A Practical Lesson in Estate Planning”
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