Challenging Will

[Tinogirl]

Not me, but posting with permission from my cousin.

My cousin’s brother-in-law died just after Easter. He was unmarried and did not have children.

His will made during Covid and perfectly executed, paid for through his work, left everything to his best friend’s daughter who was his Goddaughter.

My cousin is annoyed and upset that her daughter who is eighteen months old did not receive an inheritance from her uncle and believes that she would have been included if the BiL had got round to updating will.

She wants to challenge, I don’t think that she has a leg to stand on. Nobody was really dependent on him although he did support his own parents, my cousin’s in-laws.

Her husband, the deceased’s brother wants his parents to challenge but they have refused.

Your cousin needs to stop being so grabby and leave the family alone to grieve, not hound them for cash 🤢

As others have said, it begs the question as to why the brother was not included, regardless of any nieces and nephews to come. To leave everything to his goddaughter seems quite intentional.

This might win an award for the most unexpected ending to a post ever

🐢

Presumably your cousin will inherit the entirety of his parents’ estate now because he has no brother (or brother’s children) for it to be shared with? So in a sense, he and his daughter may have gained

:) its what everyone should do if they have pets who might outlive them!

I can’t actually stomach the idea that your grasping, greedy, entitled and delusional cousin is even saying this out loud never mind pushing the idea of challenging her BIL direct wishes with his money AND going against the additional wishes of his grieving parents who have had to bury their own child.

I am heartbroken for these parents - they have had to do the worst thing life can throw at you and you wouldn’t expect that to get worse - but it has at the hands of their very own son in there deepest pain and darkest times. Abominable.

They have shown their very ugly insides to the world. I am not surprised that the young man didn’t change his will to accommodate his nasty cockroach of a brother.

I agree that had he reviewed his Will after his niece was born he may well have left her ££.

But he didn’t.

This is why people need to be realistic, practical and up to date with their thinking about Wills. Hardly anyone is

Perhaps he did review it and thought, I'm not going to change it.

The context of how this young man died is also relevant. Was it was sudden death, RTA etc or was he ill with a terminal illness - as if the latter he had the chance to change his will to anyone else - maybe his own parents rather than an 18month old niece.

As per other posters, don’t think she has a leg to stand on. It’s also quite telling that he decided to leave all of his DIS to his mother. If he wanted his brother to have something then he could have left a % to him of this regardless of his will. You also don’t know when he last completed this expression of wish at work. We’re prompted to review ours on an annual basis so he may have been asked since the niece was born and still chose not to include her / his brother.

This is awful. Have they explained why?!

I’m surprised that this grim brother hasn’t asked his grieving mother for the DIS to be given over to his 18month older DD. That’s the next manoeuvre of these types.

I find it interesting that you describe your cousin and her husband as "nice and good, genuinely." In my experience, people are lovely until money is involved. I also note that they are framing their unhappiness as unfairness to the niece and not what the brother would have wanted" which is much "nicer" and more socially acceptable than the truth i.e. they want the money for themselves and can't bear the thought of the money going to the undeserving goddaughter. The fact is that the brother could have chosen to leave money to his brother but did not. That says a lot. I'm pleased there is a properly executed will which will thwart their attempts to challenge said will. Tellingly, there's nothing said about the poor brother / brother in law who died before his time.

He's had plenty of time to change his will if he wanted to. Did the cousin see him regularly, help him out, buy Birthday and Christmas cards and presents etc. If they were close I could understand they would be disappointed/annoyed. I assume his best friend was still his best friend and the God Daughter was the closest thing to a child of his own. You can allow for as yet unborn children in a will but he didn't choose to.