Should judges be able to change wills?

Seven years ago my Father re-wrote his will disinheriting all three of his children.....he was not a nice man and although we had tried to keep in touch with him and keep him safe through his many health and welfare problems he was always bitter and twisted about life.
However, his will was written perfectly legally and after the initial shock we all felt it was typical of him and although there was disgust at him leaving his grandchildren out as well we accepted events and drew a line under all the years of unpleasantness that he had caused.

Now this!!! Its remarkable and makes a mockery of the legal process. If a will is written legally and is the deceased person's wishes then I find this case very troubling.
How are we going to safeguard our wishes for the future?

Exactly. I had a friend who wanted to disinherit one daughter who had been truly dreadful to her, and leave her estate to the one who had been so kind and supportive- always. Sadly this could not happen as she didn't change her will in time. Won't go into detail, but it truly grieves me.

Right or wrong, people's decisions about their estates should be respected and not interferred with!

Quite granjura, as long as the will is made legally...i.e. with all due respect to legislation at the time....'natural' justice, although a wonderful concept cannot play its part here...a will is the final reckoning and must be respected.

There are enough people who procrastinate about making wills....this will only add fuel to that.....and more people will ask 'what's the point?'

I think this is a great decision, wills should be looked at in more detail. I have a will position I'm really unhappy about. My much loved uncle in Paisley died a few years ago in Scotland. He was childless and alone and in his later years was 'looked after' by a distant relative. My family & I live in the west country and for years we kept good contact with uncle stanley. But as he declined he became profoundly deaf, phone calls were very difficult, and he moved nearer the carers. Thats when keeping contact for us became difficult. I telephoned the carers to arrange visits as he declined and was in severe pain from oesteoporosis etc. but was always put off. Then I had an abrupt phone call from stanley asking me not to ring him again, or write. I was hurt, mum rang him but he wouldn't explain. So we went up there. We weren't invited to stay as stanley usually did, so arrived on sunday pm, as soon as we arrived so did the 'carer' and sat in with us the whole time. We were told to leave after an hour as Stanley was tired. So we did. When he died we discovered he'd given away £440,000, bought presents for local shop staff, paid for holidays for carers etc, until he was left with just under the amount for inheritance tax. He wasn't demented, but was weak and in pain from oesteoporosis and often in hospital. I can't get the medical records cos the GP is denying me them but he says he will give them if I go to Court, which I can't afford. Luckily enough I have a relative about to study law who will get them in time.
I was a mental health social worker for years and believe that capacity to make a will isn't a finite thing, it isn't that one day you have capacity and the next day you don't, there are a lot of things that affect capacity, & people giving away major sums of money should be given independent financial & civil advice so they really are aware of what they are doing, in Stanley's case the sole beneficiary, carer & executor should not be the same person. I welcome a challenge to wills cos mine isn't a unique case. Uncle Stanley had a inherited a business, Turners in Scotland, which his uncle had set up with a schoolfriend in the 1920's & had always wanted a family member on board for ethical reasons, but stanley sold it, for no apparent reason, he had a considerable fortune. I'm sure in his real mind stanley would have had independent advice on this and discussed it with family, but someone had put him against us.

I was brought up under the Salic law, where everything is passed on equally to spouse and offspring. No more than 10% permitted in bequests. Doesn't make life any easier.

Oh how my heart aches for all the grans out there! I've been there, and got a cupboardful of T-shirts... I looked after the aged Ps for 10 years, father was an absolute horror, really nasty, mother siding with him always, and two sisters interfering endlessly from afar!

Sisters colluded to have me not actually disinherited [not possible as DH held the dosh in trust for parents] but made to look a grasping b..ch for wanting one or two mementoes [small valueless piece of jewelry] of old, old family! even their only granddaughter was excluded from promised mementos!

I held my tongue, gave my middle age and teenage years of my children to look after the old parents. When father died, sisters were over mother like a rash and took mother to distant county, made life impossible to visit. BiLFH told us it was "inconvenient", "Impossible" or "waste of time" to visit mother - then we were heaped with reproaches for not visiting, even though DH was being treated for cancer etc...

Believe me, the best thing it to cut yourself off, swallow the injustice and get a life! Remorse, envy, etc., are absolutely not worth it.

I now am completely cut off from siblings, and feel a great deal of sadness, but nothing on earth will make me try to mend any further bridges. Too many olive branches have been shoved unceremoniously back at me. Life is a lot less miserable now.

grandMattie....am proudly wearing the 'Walk Away' T shirt.....its so much better to look forward, even better to live 'today' after all its the only thing we really have any control over!

Families! Who'd have 'em?

Good girl, HildaW. Life is too short otherwise.

Envy and so on are such corrosive emotions!

Growing old is for Grace - that sort of "gracefully"!

Same in Portugal, the children and any other dependant relatives are entitled to shares as set out in law. You can only leave a small portion to anyone or thing else. So if the father dies the children can be entitled to part of the home even if the wife is still living in it.

Also in England my father died leaving all his estate to his partner stating when they had both died it should be divided between all their children. His partner made a similar Will. But after he died she changed her Will. Also she sold up and went on a big spending spree. Not what my father expected to happen.

This case does worry me. I have omitted my eldest son out of my will. He has not spoken to me for almost one year because my younger son allowed me to use his accountant! Sibling rivalry. I have treated them equally always. In fact the older son has had £10,000 which he borrowed from my husband (who died 7 years ago) and I. I gave him almost £10,000 for a new kitchen, £500 towards a new cooker, £500 towards a pedigree dog for his children. I have left his children money. Also left him a grandfather clock. He treated both my husband and I badly over the years. I altered my will with great thought. I sincerely hope no interfering judge changes my wishes. I am 79 years old and he lives in the flat above me and walks past me in the drive. Even my two grandchildren no longer come in to see me. It hurts very badly. That's life.

ajanela, same thing in Switzerland- although between spouses, you can by-pass this by making an official signed request via a solicitor- that 100% on the death of the first spouse is left to the other, which is what we have done. We are happy for our daughters to both inherit 50% when the second one dies- so we are not worried there. The money loaned to DD2 will be deducted from her share if she has not re.paid by then- but she is well on her way to doing so (well done her).

I think there may be a lot more to this situation than has been reported. The mother lied about the father leaving her nothing upon his death for a start and to disown your only child for marrying someone you did not approve of is really no reason at all. I don't believe for one minute she was truly of sound mind (she sounds a typical narcissist) when she wrote the will but she convinced those around her that she was (which is also typical of narcissists).

My mother was similar to the women who wrote the will in this case. She kept 'disowning' me throughout her life for reasons I cannot go into here - it's still too bloody painful.

She left me out of her will (I wasn't surprised) but left nothing of her £500,000 estate to her two grandchildren who had never done anything wrong other than have been born to me, of course. That I found very distressing.

Instead she left the money to four cousins (all of whom are very wealthy in their own right). Frankly I'd have found it more understandable if she had left the money to charity.

I was going through a divorce at the time my mother died and wasn't (fortunately) in the same position as the daughter here so didn't challenge the will. So much money would have gone to lawyers and the emotional turmoil would have killed me off I think.

Even though it means that they don't have complete control over where their estate goes, I believe the French and other countries, have it right by avoiding this situation arising because it is the law that your direct descendants receive 50% of the estate. This avoids costly court cases and emotional damage.