Father's Will Tore the Family Apart

It is sad when anyone loses a member of their family. Most people go through the necessary process to get through things. Funeral, grieving and eventually settling the deceased's estate.

The funeral and the grieving are given in most family dynamics, but who was to know that settling the estate would become a virtual bloody battle?

Dad passed away a couple of years ago believing he had all of his final affairs in order. However, little did we know things would take such an ugly turn.

Dad had four sons, his first and third having passed away before him. This left son number two to step up as executor. Par the normal. But, son number two has yet to take care of things. Dad left pretty detailed instructions revealing that everything he had was to be split equally among his children.

Since two of his sons had passed that leaves us with a new development. Son number three had never married or had children so his one fourth was to be added back into the inheritance leaving things to be split three ways.

Son number one was also deceased but left behind two children, who are to divide his share among themselves equally. Now, son number two, who is "in charge," had a special stipulation mentioned.

Number two had a son when he was a teenager who he gave up parental rights to. This upset grandpa immensely. So the stipulation for him was that he was to give one-third of his inheritance to his forgotten son.

This makes number two and his wife pretty angry. So now he has been dragging his feet taking care of doing everything that needs to be done to settle the estate. He has not dispersed any funds from the personal property auction, or even began to go about selling dad's farm.

This has caused major ugly feelings within the family who believe son number two thinks since he is executor, things are his way. Now the family has drifted apart and having to seek legal counsel to get what is rightly theirs.

Two years, nothing has been accomplished except for, son number renting dad's house to his daughter, and their family using the property as if it was entirely theirs and theirs alone. We have told them, fine if they want to keep the home then to buy out the other parties involved.

Nope, they want to do things at their own speed which is zero mph. They want to have all the benefits of the home for free and at the expense of others. Obviously, according to them, there has been major upkeep, which is being paid for out of estate funds.

Sad thing is, this is by no means in any way whatsoever dad would have wanted things and this upsets the family. Mind you we are not talking mountains of money, but perhaps several thousands of dollars each.

Now it will all most likely be eaten up in court fines and legal fees all because one heir feels entitled and cares less about the family relationship. It is not about the money. It is now about the principal of the matter. We are not going to roll over and allow one person to have his greedy way.

So, my advice to you: when making out your will be cautious. Make sure you have every detail outlined. While you may believe this would never happen in your family, you are wrong it is amazing as to how little money it takes to change and destroy a family. Don't let something like this destroy your family.