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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

My father's will

My father's will is very much on his mind. On one occasion he took my brother and me out to dinner and handed us each a copy. We were to be executors.

A couple of days ago he informed me that I would be sole executor, because my brother, hotshot millionaire lawyer that he is, was too busy. So I read the damn thing.

My father has three children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Thirteen heirs, to be exact. Although he has sliced and diced his estate several different ways, essentially it would be a thirteen-way split. Then there's my stepmother, who gets his condo for as long as she lives.

The other thing he has is not much money. Not much divided by 13, subtract the condo, is very not much. So every one of his heirs and assigns would receive the price of a round-trip ticket from Newark NJ to Newark DE. Or maybe a little farther. Possibly they could make it to Maryland and back.

I just know that some day this is going to bite me in the butt. Money stuff always makes people crazy.

4 comments:

Dick Stanley said...

Your father may not have much money but he has a sense of humor.

The Sanity Inspector said...

My sympathies. I had a never-married uncle who died when I was in my teens. He wasn't poor, but he had nothing except an old car, a clapboard house, and his bachelor's furnishings. And there was still a squabble over who was going to get what, I'm told.

Mig said...

Ugh! My parents have made me the executor to theirs as well, except I get to take over the responsbility of my 46 year old brother and he so ISNT a millionaire.

So look at it this way, it could be worse. :-)

Unknown said...

Your father has got it all figured out, even the round-trip plane tickets from and to the two Newarks. Having thirteen heirs can be a problem, moreso in liquidating and such, but your father took care of all that detail himself. Being executor looks hard, but as long as you have your father's will with you and understand it, it shouldn't be that hard to fulfill your father's wishes.
Trudy Nearn @ GenerationsProbate.com