Inheritance

[Jopo1980]

Ok, in the Finnish legal system it is IMPOSSIBLE to fully disinherit someone who is entitled to an inheritance. An heir is entitled "by blood" to a portion of the deceased persons estate and that cannot be changed with a will. Some parts of the estate can be governed with a will though. For example: An only child inherits his/her parents 100% if there is no will and is entitled to 50% of the estate "by blood" (I think), the remaining 50% can be governed with a will and hence can be disinherited at the deceased persons discretion.

 

Now the questions are:

 

* What kind of inheritance laws are there in your country?

 

*Would you consider disinheriting someone?

 

* Is disinheriting someone an evil act?

 

Note that usually inheritors are the children of their parents and it would usually take a MAJOR rift in the personal relations between them to make a parent disinherit a child, but it might give parents a position to show favoritism to some of the children by reducing the amount others get.

 

Personally I will be inheriting my parents at some distant point in the future along with my younger sister. First the estate passes on to the control of the widow of the parent who died first and when both are gone, the children inherit.

 

Now, I will inherit my parents, but since I have no children and at present I don´t want any, my possessions will, in the case of my death, pass on back to my parents if they are alive and when they are gone, to my sister, who will be the sole inheritor of everything I have. By law I cannot disinherit my sister fully, but I can govern 50% of my possessions by will and do as I please with it. Now the interesting question is, should I use that power to deprive my sister of 50% of her potential inheritance and give it to someone I favor more or should I just let her have it all?

 

Maybe the older people in the forums can weigh in on the matter with their opinions, since they are somewhat closer to the subject? (although death can come even to a young person, you never know)

[HeyYou]

Here in the States, the Will is the law. If you leave everything to your cat, your family can contest the will, but, that is no guarantee that they will win. (and the cat will be rich, not that the cat really cares.....)

[Jopo1980]

Can they contest the will on grounds of insanity if the deceased had a mental health history? Oh yes, and who inherits the cat? The new owner?

[HeyYou]

Can they contest the will on grounds of insanity if the deceased had a mental health history? Oh yes, and who inherits the cat? The new owner?

 

They can contest the will because they don't like the color of paper it is printed on...... (litigation is really ridiculous here....) I assume the cat's new "owner" (more on that later) would become the trustee of the estate, to make sure the cat doesn't make any bad financial decisions. (like, buying a mouse farm......)

 

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. :D

[Aurielius]

Can they contest the will on grounds of insanity if the deceased had a mental health history? Oh yes, and who inherits the cat? The new owner?

 

They can contest the will because they don't like the color of paper it is printed on...... (litigation is really ridiculous here....) I assume the cat's new "owner" (more on that later) would become the trustee of the estate, to make sure the cat doesn't make any bad financial decisions. (like, buying a mouse farm......)

 

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. :D

It's fairly easy to set up a Trust Fund for your Pet in my case an irish setter that is outside the will and provides for their care and maintenance, like an annuity it is outside of probate and hence incontestable. Let your greedy little heirs try to go legal head to head with an Insurance company's battery of Lawyers and see how much head way they make. If you really want to make it interesting include a clause that anyone who attempts to contest the will is automatically excluded from all their inheritance..now lets see if they have true gamblers cojones..all or nothing.

 

Dogs have families, cats have servants. :whistling:

Edited November 26, 2011 by Aurielius

[Beriallord]

In the US you can say your inheritance goes to your pet hamster and when it dies everything gets sold and goes to charity.

[DeadMansFist849]

Well, in the UK, we have some odd cases. A person can't set up a trust for a purpose unless it's in the case of a charity (which makes it technically different from an ordinary private trust), and if it's not for a charity then there's a few funny exceptions in the case law. However, to my knowledge, if you word it right (yes, that's bloody important, our lawyers are tough) then you can make sure your belongings go to a specific person or people and your relatives can't really do much about it.

 

In response to the OP, yes, I do think we should be able to disinherit people whom we don't trust or just plain view as horrible. A person who has very unpleasant relatives, for example, shouldn't have to worry that upon death, zir estate will go to zir blood-related enemies. However, I still think it's bad to disinherit people purely out of spite--just as with other things I believe we all should have a right to do, it doesn't mean we can't think less of those who do those things. If there's a good reason, e.g. your relatives are utterly horrible to you, or just plain vultures, then that's really understandable.

 

I find this subject does concern me as I am a final-year law student and worried about dying and being given the wrong kind of ceremony and having my few things given to the vultures.

[Balagor]

In DK inherit "by blood" comes first.

Second comes a will.

A will can never overrule blood line inherit, i.e. your parents can not make a will that favors others 100 %

Children will ALLWAYS inherit 75%, the rest they will inherit too, if not given away through a will.

You can allways deny inheritment. F.ex if there is only debts. then creditors will sell what ever there is to sell, and share the cash in a priority order.(those who has the most, shall be given the most). If there is nothing to sell, the creditors loose. Inheritor can never be held responsible.

[Jopo1980]

It seems to be a Nordic tradition that inheritance by blood entitles the inheritor to an undeniable portion of the estate. An inheritor can always decline his/her right to inheritance and I don´t know what happens to the property in that case, possibly it goes to the next in line to inherit. So eventually when me and my sister inherit our parents, I can decline to have my entitled portion, in which case it might go to my sister, in which case she would inherit the parents 100% and since I don´t plan on having children and there is the distinct possibility that I will "exit" this world some time after my parents are gone, she will inherit the final 50% of my parents estate in any case, that should help her get over the loss of her immediate family including her only brother. Besides, my sister is planning on having kids so she will have a bloodline to pass her belongings on after she dies.

[Jopo1980]

Of course I could "sting" my poor sister and give 50% of my belongings to some other individual I favor more, just out of pure spite.