It’s a day every family dreads, but it’s as inevitable as death and taxes. In this case, it’s death, the family’s last remaining matriarch, or patriarch, has passed away leaving behind a house full of valuable antiques and the even more valuable piece of property the house sits upon, along with a gaggle of descendants who are all hungry for a piece of that pie. It’s time for the reading of the will, and everyone waits in trepidation to see if they are going to win, or lose, a very tense time in many cases. The Australian Baby Boomer Generation (people born in the period between 1946 to 1964) will pass down around 225 billion dollars of inheritance by the year 2050, so it’s not just your family going through this sometimes-painful event.
In most families, the process is an amicable one, but sometimes there is a bad egg in the basket, a greedy relative who thinks they are entitled to much more than their fair share, and who feels no shame about making their unfair demands! When this is an unfortunate case, your family is going to need to obtain the services of the best family lawyer they can find! The invaluable help of a qualified legal professional is going to make this already difficult proceeding go a lot smoother, and they will have no compunction against putting greedy relatives in their place!
If it comes down to a fight, there are rulings that can help your family legally ascertain a fair distribution of inherited goods. Here are some of the steps involved:
First, the liabilities and assets of the family relationships must be identified in order to determine their value.
Secondly, it’s necessary to examine the contributions of each family member involved. These include financial aid, such as a relative who assisted the deceased by helping them make their tax payments, and the contribution of time and effort, such as a primary caretaker who offered considerable help to the deceased until the very end.
Then a variety of future needs will be assessed, based on the age and health of the inheritors, their employment and income, and their physical and mental ability to maintain employment. These comprise the past and future needs of each party.
Finally, there comes the question of whether or not any demands are just and equitable, and fair to all parties involved.