Complete Strangers May Get a Share of Your Estate
The consequences of dying without a Will
July 1, 2001 -- Another case demonstrating the
consequences of dying without a Will has been reported in California. This time
the California Supreme Court reluctantly decided that a widow whose husband died
without a Will must share his property with his half siblings, even though he
never knew of their existence.
PartingWishes.com CEO Tim Hewson notes: "This case is
interesting, because it highlights the growing industry of 'heir hunting',
whereby professionals provide a service for relatives of people dying without a
Will. The service notifies survivors and then takes a cut of any inheritance
claim, even if the survivors have never heard of the deceased." This is
exactly what happened in the case of Denis H. Griswold, a Santa Barbara resident
who was born out of wedlock and whose biological father paid child support for
18 years. The father and son never had any contact before they died, and
Griswold only learned of the existence of his father when he came across a birth
certificate as an adult.
Griswold died without knowing that he also had two half
siblings in Ohio. They, in turn, did not know about him until a professional
"heir hunter" (or "forensic genealogist") researching
probate and birth records called them up and told them that they could inherit
some money.
Regardless of the circumstances, the court said that the law
states that the half siblings are entitled to half of Griswold's estate,
estimated at $300,000.
Tim Hewson goes on to note: "This is a particularly
tragic case in that the deceased clearly wanted his medically disabled widow to
receive his full inheritance. He is unlikely to have wanted his biological
father to have shared in his estate. It is almost certain that he would not have
wanted other offspring of this man to take a share."
This case also demonstrates that the people's negligence in
not creating a Will has led to the industry of heir hunting. They typically work
for a 30 percent cut in any inheritance, look for people dying without a Will
and then contact relatives out of the blue indicating that they might have an
inheritance.
"At first, the profession may seem a little seedy when
described in the context of this unfortunate case", Hewson explains,
"however, there can be some value in this service in tracking down
relatives to an estate that has no known beneficiaries. Without this service,
the estate could just pass to the government, and so no matter how tenuous, it
may be better to keep the estate within the family."
If this sounds messy though, and it is, it can all be avoided
by writing a Will. "Most people put off writing a Will for a variety of
poor reasons, even though their whole life's worth is at stake.", Hewson
notes, "They could instead have piece of mind right now by logging on to
PartingWishes.com and preparing their Will online in less than 30 minutes.
Everybody has a choice of whether to die without a Will and risk losing their
estate to strangers, or spending 30 minutes online deciding who will receive
their wealth. It really isn't much of a choice."
For more information about creating a Will take a look at the
MyWill™
online Legal Will creation service.
(Reported by MAURA DOLAN, June 22, 2001 Los Angeles Times -
'Strangers' to Get Half of Estate)
For More Information Contact:
PartingWishes.com
Email:
support@partingwishes.com
Internet:
http://www.partingwishes.com
