In a WealthCounsel Quarterly post Blood & Money: Why Families Fight Over Inheritance, P. Mark Accettura, J.D., lists what he sees as five reasons of why families end up in estate disputes:
There are five basic reasons why families fight in matters of inheritance: First, humans are genetically predisposed to competition and conflict; second, our psychological sense of self is intertwined with the approval that an inheritance represents, especially when the decedent is a parent; third, we are genetically hardwired to be on the lookout for exclusion, sometimes finding it when it doesn’t exist; fourth, families fight because the death of a loved one activates the death anxieties of those left behind; and finally, in some cases, one or more members of a family has a partial or full-blown personality disorder that causes them to distort and escalate natural family rivalries into personal and legal battles. These sources of family conflict are not mutually exclusive; in most cases, some combination of the five elements present themselves in a combustible cocktail of family rivalry and conflict.
We’d certainly agree with these positions. Click here to read the entire piece.
Meanwhile, we think it important to note how these characteristics or situations can be recognized by predatory lawyers or other unscrupulous parties and played upon so as to also help contrive probate disputes.
One way or another, seems the wolf is always at your door.
Estate of Denial® provides news, analysis and commentary on abusive practices occurring in probate courts and via probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney). We provide original perspective to educate the public regarding this growing threat to both individual freedoms and property rights.