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?
What about the third Will he “intended” to Write making me the Sole Beneficiary? Man oh man, I’m screwed again.
Seriously, the Signed Will is the Legal Will, period.
IMHO, stay out of their Family Business. You don’t want to get sucked into this mess.
“There is literally, no choice. There is only one legally signed will. The executor has to follow it.”
The unsigned will may be valid. You cannot ignore it.
Agreed.
No one should be put in the position of guessing what he wanted or if he would have followed through.
The lawyer who is advising abandoning the legally signed will is putting the executor & the estate in legal jeopardy. The heirs now have control of the estate. If they want to make a gift to the other parties that is their choice & right. They would be advised to seek competent counsel with an eye toward avoiding such a suit.
My parents signed will from 1974 was the one used in their recent deaths... Abide by the legal one...
“Seriously, the Signed Will is the Legal Will, period.”
Bad legal opinion.
“My parents signed will from 1974 was the one used in their recent deaths... Abide by the legal one...”
The unsigned one may be legal.
FOS...
“True. But the unsigned one may be valid.”
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If it were by itself in time and space it could be, but you can’t have 2 valid wills - especially if they contradict each other.
Well, I was a Banker, not a Lawyer. LOL
Anybody could have written that second will, if he didn’t sign it then the executor has no obligation to honor it. There are a lot of crooked judges too.
You keep making this point but review of the literature suggests that the unsigned new will can be used by the people named therein as evidence in a suit not that the executor should follow such an unsigned paper in preference to a legally executed will.
“If it were by itself in time and space it could be, but you can’t have 2 valid wills - especially if they contradict each other.”
You are saying that once a person makes a will he can never make a new one. Total nonsense
None of Gator’s possibilities would work here in California. Not stated in the fact pattern but both the IRA and annuity should have beneficiaries so those assets wouldn’t get probated
“Anybody could have written that second will, if he didn’t sign it then the executor has no obligation to honor it.
We have reason to believe it was not written by just anybody.
“You are saying that once a person makes a will he can never make a new one.”
—
If someone can come back from the dead and sign legal documents undoing the one’s he signed when he was alive, I’m certainly not going to argue with him! I ain’t gonna take on someone who can self-resurrect at will, nope!
Law has determined that an unsigned may have priority.
Would your expert advice to the executor be that HE should be the one to make the decision on whether the signed or the unsigned will should have priority?
” Not stated in the fact pattern but both the IRA and annuity should have beneficiaries so those assets wouldn’t get probated”
If there are no named beneficiaries the go into the estate.
“None of Gator’s possibilities would work here in California”
Which ones?
“Would your expert advice to the executor be that HE should be the one to make the decision on whether the signed or the unsigned will should have priority?”
Above my paygrade.
Non Sequitur
Old signed will...period!
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