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Am i the only that think people like this women are selfish?
Selfish? Did you miss the part about the relatives not in the will who are seeking a share of the money? They are not poor.
If undue influence was exerted by any of the beneficiaries, then the will can be set aside. However, people do have a right to determine what happens to their assets when they die. It might have been better for her to leave small bequests to everyone in the family --- with the caveat that if they challenged the will they would would get nothing.
My FIL was an attorney. DH and I actually watched him argue a case (with a much smaller inheritance at stake) in which an attorney took advantage of an elderly woman with dementia. He had her cut her only living heirs (a niece and her children) out of her will and leave her estate to him. FIL was able to show that the elderly woman's medical records proved that she was unable to understand what she was signing when the new will was made. The niece and her family had always been the heirs in earlier versions and there was no evidence of any rift in the family relationship that would justify leaving them out. The will was set aside by the court. I do not know what happened to the lawyer.
It would be unethical for anyone with a fiduciary relationship to Ms. Clark to accept a bequest from her, whether it is a doctor, her lawyer, or her accountant. Even if they did not pressure her to put them in her will, they should not accept it.
The blood relatives seeking Ms. Clark's estate had little or no contact with her while she was alive. There was nothing in the article that leads me to suspect she was kept in the hospital against her will, although the arrangement was weird. Eccentricity is not a mental illness.
She entered a hospital at the age of 84 to be treated for cancer. She was treated and recovered, but decided to stay in the hospital until she died 20 years later.
I really thought hospitals were places where germs and infections are easily spread. However, since she had her own private room and nurse, maybe she lived longer and healthier in the hospital.
Even people who are not wealthy usually make simple requests at the time of death to send donations in lieu of flowers to a charity of their choice or to the hospital and staff who cared for them.
I don't see anything unusual about this woman leaving her inheritance to charity and to her nurse who cared for her for 20 years.
My will says that if my siblings predecease me my money goes to a certain charity. Everyone in my family has done something similar. Why should a distant relative get the money?
I had an relative that died with an old will. Spouse long dead, no kids. Their estate was divided among their siblings. Some of them were dead. Their share went to their children. Some of them were dead, so it went to their children, WHO NEVER MET THE DECEASED! That is why my family members have a couple beneficiaries and if they are gone it goes to charity.
Apparently the doctors that were "caring" for her along with the hospital administration were getting $$$ from her also. The hospital actually tried to "shake her down' at one point. I have read quite a bit on Ms. Clark and it was my understanding her attorney and banker kept the family at bay, while they robbed her blind.
I say the same thing, distant relatives are the same as strangers, i rather give to people that really cared about me...
Most of these "relatives" are that in genealogical terms only, she never saw them. They are clearly drooling parasites. And she seems to have been quite clear in excluding them in her will about the fact that she hardly knew them.
Her money, her call. If she was being unduly influenced when she was alive, how come this crowd of relatives wasn't there trying to protect her? It took the revelation of her huge fortune to raise this concern. Post-mortem, post-reading-of-the-will compassion is transparently shabby.
Apparently the doctors that were "caring" for her along with the hospital administration were getting $$$ from her also. The hospital actually tried to "shake her down' at one point. I have read quite a bit on Ms. Clark and it was my understanding her attorney and banker kept the family at bay, while they robbed her blind.
Robbed her blind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She left an ENORMOUS fortune for someone robbed blind.
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