A lot of people die without making a will. There used to be a degree of personal satisfaction in directing how your worldly goods would be distributed and the sure knowledge that this would happen according to your instructions. In today's world, that outcome is far from certain.
The law of the land has given itself the right to over ride your wishes and second guess where any wealth you leave behind may be distributed. That decision will now be made by a learned judge who knows absolutely nothing of the lifestyle you lived, nor the reason that personal relationships broke down - and simply makes judgement on a mix of formulae and how he or she is feeling on the day of that decision Often personal feelings and attitudes to life will colour the outcome.
It is perhaps understandable that the estate of the hugely rich may be contested by relatives. Where multi millions of dollars are involved there are usually family expectations and even promises that have not been fulfilled. The cases passing through the court system today reconfigure the outcome and distribution of more modest wealth and its progression to nominated beneficiaries.
One recent case involved the estate of a woman who passed away at the ripe old age of ninety-nine. She left an estate valued at $2 million, most of which was represented by the modest family home at Turramurra which was valued at $ 1.8 million because of the Sydney home price bubble. It is doubtful if that woman would have considered herself " wealthy "
She willed her estate to one of her two daughters. The daughter who was not mentioned in the will went to court to sue her sister and a benevolent judge promptly handed her $ 425,000, completely ignoring the wishes of the deceased. In a breakdown of this judgement $ 2615 was specifically awarded for pilates and water aerobics.
The estranged daughter admitted that she had never had a close relationship with her mother and had been rebellious. She had become estranged from her mother, who did not attend her graduation and disproved of her marriage, which ended in divorce. There was further friction following the death of her father in 1996.
It seems that there was a degree of balancing of estate distribution between her mother and father. Her fathers estate of $ 86,168 went entirely to the errant daughter and this went unchallenged by her sister. It could be argued that to a degree the imbalance of value between the father and mothers estates could be mainly attributed to the recent surge of home prices in Sydney, and yet that anomaly was completely disregarded by the judge.
Knowing that her errant daughter had benefitted from her fathers estate this mother had probably felt justified in rewarding the daughter who has stood by her in her declining years, only to have that benefit snatched away on the whim of a Supreme court judge. Her wishes on how her estate was to be distributed were completely ignored.
No wonder so many people fail to go to the trouble - and expense - of making a will. What's the point, when the judiciary will treat it with contempt and make their own decisions ?
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