Are my friends screwed?

[Bobdolez]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Complicated situation, but basically my two good friends mom got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her chest and 7 separate parts of her brian out of nowhere, and just passed away yesterday not even 2 weeks later.

She has been seeing a new man for at most 3 years as of right now, and after viewing her will, they saw that she made a new copy in july 2010 that names her boyfriend POA and beneficiary, she would have only known him for 2 years at that time.

Details on if she has life/mortgage insurance are cloudy still, but the man gets 19% of her company that he had nothing to do with, and her kids got 14.5% (and they have worked there for years)

Is there any way they can fight this? They thankfully didnt get married sooner like her boyfriend obviously wanted but he apparently conned his way into the will. She had been degrading mentally for a while (because of the cancer we assume) and 15+ people agree she was not in her right mind but the law would say how could she run a company if she was incompetent.

Many people know something shady is going on, I havent typed half of it, but its bad when even doctors and employees at the funeral home are warning them about the guy (he keeps trying to get her SSN and other info for reasons he wont disclose)

It seems like my friends could potentially end up out on the street with nothing because this joker could steal it all from them. He already said after the funeral he is going to "just dissapear for a while" which sounds like steal the life insurance and run. so I guess im hoping to hear some kind of good news I could relay to them before they meet with the lawyers, they have had a lot piled on them very fast and now all of this on top of it.

 

[FlyingRon]

POA has no meaning after the grantor dies.
Unless they can show mom was somehow not of sound mind when she made the new will, there's no obligation that adult children get anything from the parent's estate. He's got no authority to do anything with the estate until probate names an executor to do so.

Best bet would be for the kids to contact a lawyer who can make sure proper probate takes place and scruitinize the will.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The life insurance will likely have a beneficiary. The beneficiary will get the insurance.

 

[curb1]

Apparently the friends have seen the will. Who is listed on the will as the nominated (by the will) executor?

Was the will (July 2010) properly written and witnessed?

 

[Bobdolez]

Thanks for the replies.

Im at work so I cannot look at it right now, but im pretty sure her boyfriend was beneficiary and I believe I heard him say he is executor as well.

So she pretty much left everything to her boyfriend besides the 14.5% of the company that will probably get swallowed up by the IRS anyway. I wonder if they could use the companies recent financial/tax problems as signs of incompetence?

Its just completely unlike her as her goals were to always make sure her kids lived a better life then her, which her boyfriend will now while my friends lose their job, house, etc.

and yes it is witnessed, and notary stamped (no seal on it but I dont think that matters)

 

[xylene]

Its just completely unlike her as her goals were to always make sure her kids lived a better life then her, which her boyfriend will now while my friends lose their job, house, etc.

You need to back up and off this. It is not your business.

Tell your friends to get a lawyer, but really, they need to get a therapist.

Their mom, of her own very free will named her LOVER as the beneficiary of her insurance AND estate. 1000% legal and quite common. I take it they don't like this man - too bad. Mom did. Maybe if they hadn't disappoved of their mother's love (sex) life and had been decent children to her and the person she CHOOSE to be with they would not have found themselves disinherited.

If they can't hold a job, or pay for their house - how does that concern not getting the windfall of an estate? Right, it doesn't.

 

[anteater]

and yes it is witnessed, and notary stamped (no seal on it but I dont think that matters)

There is no requirement that it be notarized. Having the testator's and witness' signatures notarized, called making the will self-proving, makes it easier to have the will accepted by the court.

While my opinion is that the courts tend to have a subtle predisposition toward favoring children who are skunked in favor of a non-spouse beneficiary, there still has to be evidence. And incompetence is difficult to prove after the fact. No matter how many people are willing to say, "She would never have done...", that is not evidence.

Michigan statutes state:

700.2501 Will; maker; sufficient mental capacity.
Sec. 2501.

(1) An individual 18 years of age or older who has sufficient mental capacity may make a will.

(2) An individual has sufficient mental capacity to make a will if all of the following requirements are met:

(a) The individual has the ability to understand that he or she is providing for the disposition of his or her property after death.

(b) The individual has the ability to know the nature and extent of his or her property.

(c) The individual knows the natural objects of his or her bounty.

(d) The individual has the ability to understand in a reasonable manner the general nature and effect of his or her act in signing the will.

That is not a very demanding standard.

I sympathize with your friends, but they need to understand that it could be a difficult fight.

 

[xylene]

I sympathize with your friends,

Why? Because they got a few % points less inheritance so that Mom could provide an inheritance to her boyfriend of 3 years, whom she trusted with her end of life care, whom she wasn't able to marry because she died of aggressive cancer...

Super sympathetic.

 

[Bobdolez]

You need to back up and off this. It is not your business.

Tell your friends to get a lawyer, but really, they need to get a therapist.

Their mom, of her own very free will named her LOVER as the beneficiary of her insurance AND estate. 1000% legal and quite common. I take it they don't like this man - too bad. Mom did. Maybe if they hadn't disappoved of their mother's love (sex) life and had been decent children to her and the person she CHOOSE to be with they would not have found themselves disinherited.

If they can't hold a job, or pay for their house - how does that concern not getting the windfall of an estate? Right, it doesn't.

Not necessarily her free will, she was on a lot of pain medications and was an alcoholic after her divorce and met the guy at AA, not to mention the 7 tumors she probably had in her brain at the time.

They never had a problem with the man until all of this came about, they worked for the family company most of their life, helped her every chance they had and they all payed equal share toward the house. I also forgot to mention after a background check the man has a history of embezzlement so get your facts straight before you come here to flame instead of offer some kind of advice.

She made a lot of money and the guy didnt and was after it from the start. I could see it happening but there is nothing I could say about it.

I hope you never get the backstabbing slap in the face that they are.

 

[Banned_Princess]

Not necessarily her free will, she was on a lot of pain medications and was an alcoholic after her divorce and met the guy at AA, not to mention the 7 tumors she probably had in her brain at the time.

They never had a problem with the man until all of this came about, they worked for the family company most of their life, helped her every chance they had and they all payed equal share toward the house. I also forgot to mention after a background check the man has a history of embezzlement so get your facts straight before you come here to flame instead of offer some kind of advice.

She made a lot of money and the guy didnt and was after it from the start. I could see it happening but there is nothing I could say about it.

I hope you never get the backstabbing slap in the face that they are.

oh yes, they probably are.

they should seek therapy.

AND the person to blame for this is dead. too bad.

 

[anteater]

I sympathize with your friends,

Why?

Because I feel like it. Why is none of your damn business.

 

[tranquility]

I hope you never get the backstabbing slap in the face that they are.

Please. They didn't have a good enough relationship with mom to have discussed all this beforehand and didn't do anything to protect mom regarding this fellow in mom's life. Now that it is their ox which is being gored, they claim undue influence and lack of capacity.

Super.

Get an attorney as this fight is going to cost a lot.

 

[Zigner]

Who gets the remaining 66.5% of the company?

 

[xylene]

She bequethed to her boyfirend / fiance - not a random cat or something...

Not necessarily her free will, she was on a lot of pain medications and was an alcoholic after her divorce and met the guy at AA, not to mention the 7 tumors she probably had in her brain at the time.

So, they met in recovery. That sounds like a soulmate. Not some random guy who sticks with someone for three years up to and while she dies of cancer.

They never had a problem with the man until all of this came about, they worked for the family company most of their life, helped her every chance they had and they all payed equal share toward the house.

Totally legally and morally irrelevant.

1. Inheritance is not required to be just.

2. Children do those things even if their parents have nothing. It is called filial piety.

also forgot to mention after a background check the man has a history of embezzlement so get your facts straight before you come here to flame instead of offer some kind of advice.

This is not embezzlement. Not even close. And there is not going to be a background check. Lots of people in AA have checkered pasts. What does that prove. NOTHING.

I hope you never get the backstabbing slap in the face that they are.

If my parents choose to include me in their will it will be a wonderful gift. IF they don't I will honor and respect what they choose. I would not be bellyaching over being shortchanged. It is tacky, and by the way I was wrong to say disinherited - they just got too little - boo-hoo.

That has a legal ramifications too. It means mom did give them a piece (15% at that), so their claims that she was so hollow in the brain to write her will are therefore much harder to state with any conviction.

 

[xylene]

Because I feel like it. Why is none of your damn business.

I thought, hoped even, that I missed something that could have been remotely sympathetic in this tale.

Now I am certain I did not.