We paid for both my MiL and Fil's funerals and burials. After one of my wife's brothers had spent the prior twenty years scamming them out of money, they didn't have a pot to piss in when they died.

My wife's Mother passed away . A couple of years later her Father passed . His sister flew in from California for the funeral and stayed at their house .She visited several times a year and always stayed there so nobody thought anything about it .The kids noticed that cabinets had been rearranged and things had been moved around in general .When asked , she said that she was just helping the kids out so they wouldn't have to deal with it . They always thought he had a lot of money and obviously she was looking for evidence of it .Things started to get tense so she went home . One of the kids said that her luggage was a lot heavier when she left .

I have the opposite story of greed, the organized variety. When my life long bachelor great uncle passed away his 8 siblings sat around a kitchen table dividing up his considerable assets. Fair enough I suppose. He had lived the last 20 years in the familial home that was purchsed just after WWI and they were deciding what to do with it, and it's contents. I sat on the porch of the old homestead listening to them deduct $3 at a time from everyone's inheritance if you took things like toilet paper or paper towels out of the house!

When it came time to divy up the guns, they all about lost their minds. My great uncle had written me into the will. He left me 2 Garands, enough parts to make two more (minus receivers), and about 5k rounds of M2 ball of Korean war vintage. Not to mention all of his WWII knick- knacks from Germany.

The expression on my great Aunts and Uncles faces was absolutely priceless.

You never think your family is capable of it until it is. My aunt and uncle (husband and wife) passed away within months of each other. It was a merciful release for my uncle who was starting to suffer from dementia and had lost his primary caretaker in his wife a few months earlier.

We’ve come to find out my cousin had taken my addled uncle to the attorney to make him amend his will in her favor cutting out her brother.

I know of three kids all in their 40's whose Father died and left each kid $9 MIL. Yes Million.

He left the rest of his holding to his current wife. Two houses, considerable art, several autos. Maybe another two million.

The kids are not happy, they want the wife to give them a cut.

Could You imagine?

Frank— No I can’t. How can people like that look at themselves in the mirror?

This has been a wake up call, for me. I'm freshly divorced and need to take a fresh look at rewriting my will.

My firearms will be the most problematic. I have two NFA items that may be especially vexing.

OP - Thanks for sharing your post!

quote:

Originally posted by BuckRogers2000:
This has been a wake up call, for me. I'm freshly divorced and need to take a fresh look at rewriting my will.

My firearms will be the most problematic. I have two NFA items that may be especially vexing.

OP - Thanks for sharing your post!

^^^^^^^^
Thread drift.
My “NFA” trust has provisions that take it outside of my standard estate. Firearms, ammo, magazines, etc. are to be split 50/50 with my children. However, if a child does not want or can’t have firearms (state of residence for example), then they forfeit a claim to them and to an offset with the standard estate. Thus, one child may receive everything plus their pro-rate portion of the standard estate.

I also put in a provision that if anything is sold, it can only be sold to fund a replacement item similar to it for example a more modern item. Think selling a 1911 to buy a HK P30. Finally, I have a mandatory provision that sales can only be to 2A supporters. As such, sales to the government, anti-2A agencies or persons, gun buy backs, etc. are prohibited. I specially stated they items are to be preserved and kept in use/commerce.

quote:

My “NFA” trust has provisions that take it outside of my standard estate. Firearms, ammo, magazines, etc. are to be split 50/50 with my children. However, if a child does not want or can’t have firearms (state of residence for example), then they forfeit a claim to them and to an offset with the standard estate. Thus, one child may receive everything plus their pro-rate portion of the standard estate.

I also put in a provision that if anything is sold, it can only be sold to fund a replacement item similar to it for example a more modern item. Think selling a 1911 to buy a HK P30. Finally, I have a mandatory provision that sales can only be to 2A supporters. As such, sales to the government, anti-2A agencies or persons, gun buy backs, etc. are prohibited. I specially stated they items are to be preserved and kept in use/commerce.

That's amazing. Whom did you use to set something like that up?

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:

quote:

My “NFA” trust has provisions that take it outside of my standard estate. Firearms, ammo, magazines, etc. are to be split 50/50 with my children. However, if a child does not want or can’t have firearms (state of residence for example), then they forfeit a claim to them and to an offset with the standard estate. Thus, one child may receive everything plus their pro-rate portion of the standard estate.

I also put in a provision that if anything is sold, it can only be sold to fund a replacement item similar to it for example a more modern item. Think selling a 1911 to buy a HK P30. Finally, I have a mandatory provision that sales can only be to 2A supporters. As such, sales to the government, anti-2A agencies or persons, gun buy backs, etc. are prohibited. I specially stated they items are to be preserved and kept in use/commerce.

That's amazing. Whom did you use to set something like that up?

Me but I also consulted with a friend who specializes in estate work and NFA trusts.

Those provisions are unenforceable. They can take your guns and sell them for pennies on the dollar on the same day as your funeral and nothing can be done.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Those provisions are unenforceable. They can take your guns and sell them for pennies on the dollar on the same day as your funeral and nothing can be done.

Not if they don't inherit them first.

Yuck. I'm the only child and I have guilt selling my father's pick up to one of his friends.

I'm the executor of my in-laws' estates. When they go, there will be a fight between my wife and her half-siblings. My wife doesn't care one but and will likely want to give them everything just to avoid the drama. I will execute the will exactly as written, but it will be yet another difficult chapter.

I was executor for my father. His will was very simple and brief.

His estate was to be divided equally between his four children.

My siblings knew of this before his death. When he died I contacted all and stated that I would be the executor and follow his desires to the letter IF they would agree to not contest the will. If they wanted to contest it I would step down from the position and let some lawyer get involved and take most of it.

They agreed and each got 25%. I did all the foot work, it was slow and painful (tedious) but did it all with almost zero involvement from any lawyers.

For the record the estate was small - no real estate, one used car, little in the way of stocks or bonds.

Lesson? Having a Will is a big help, having a simple Will is a bigger help. Having all understand what will happen beforehand helps too.