My father lived overseas for most of his life and sadly passed away recently. Rather than being able to focus on our grief, my brother and I have been plunged into a horribly tricky situation because he died intestate, leaving behind a sizable inheritance. My father and mother divorced 20 years ago and since then he has had an on/off girlfriend who is much younger than him. They split up in 2006 but remained friends. However, last year when dad was diagnosed with cancer she came back to help look after him while he recovered (as my brother and i live on the other side of the world, and as we both have young families, we couldn't do it ourselves and my father refused to move back to england). During this time, his girlfriend left again twice saying that it was too difficult for her and he was being stingy with his money (as he never had joint finances with her - he was very protective over his money). He was taken ill again, just after we received another message from her to tell us she had moved out again, so my brother and i dropped everything to fly over and be with him in his final week of life (as was she). Now that he is gone, we have found out he died without a will and that all his money will pass down to my brother and I. He also had a pension which will go to his girlfriend as he made her his beneficiary a couple of years after they first got together (when he retired). Sorry - very long winded story. The dilemna is, my brother and i don't know whether or not we should be volontarily sharing the inheritance with his girlfriend...keeping the money would be life changing for both my brother and I (and our families) but we are racked with guilt that we have received this money because dad didn't have a will and wondering ifnhe would want it to go to her.....while we were overseas organising the funeral, a lot of pressure was put on us by both her and their mutual friends to "do the right thing" and "make sure we don't fall victim to charma" etc. She told her that he had told hernhe wanted her to have all his money as well as the pension, but he kept putting off writing a will. We really don't know what to do - the pension is worth almost the same as the whole estate so its not like she has been left with nothing. In addition, theynhave no joint assets - she rentednout her apartment and lived with him in his and he paid all the bills. I have no idea what my dad would have wanted as i am completely confused at to the nature of their relationship.....she is only recently back in his life and my father claimed that they were just "good friends" (though at his age and with his poor health, i think that he was maybe beyond anything more than companionship). I am in no doubt she cared about him as she was very upset when he died, AND she did drop everything to look after him after he got sick which my brother and i are really grateful for.....but at the same time i am not sure whether or not i feel she is entitled not to ever have to work again.....to complicate matters, my mother is still very bitter about the divorce with my father as she came out of it very poorly financially (she basically lives on nothing and still has to work long hours beyond retirement age as she was too late to start a pension or get a decent job when he left her - she spent 20 years raising my brother and i and following him around the world. If she ever found out we had handed over money to dad's girlfriend she would feel very betrayed... What does everyone think?