Well, given that the dog is a known biter, it seems that it is living on borrowed time, as I guess only the fear of Helmsley herself stopped someone calling animal control. I doubt those with custodianship of the dog now will be as forthright in protecting it from the consequences of its bad habits.
And who controls how that money is spent? If I were the dog’s caretaker, I’d decide that the dog needed a big house out in the country. And a big SUV for me to drive it around in. And a big TV. For watching those videos of birds frolicking and such. And it’s sending my kids to through college, so they could become it’s personal veterinarians. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I’d also pay to send it off to those monks that do obedience training that I saw on Animal Planet. And then it could eat off the floor like a proper dog. I could probably get one of those monks to testify that such would be in the dog’s best interest, anyway.
Yeah. It would be better if wealth were seized by Marxist windbags to finance their Cultural Revolutions. Then we wouldn’t have to listen to dissenting opinions all the time.
dnooman, I would think that billions donated to charity would get her off the hook for leaving 12 million to the dog.
It’s allowed and done often in trusts. You can have the money once you reach
18, you can have the money if you are a full-time student, etc.
IIRC, what has been struck down is when decedents try to place conditions on a land’s use into perpetuity, e.g. “My benefactors and my benefactor’s benefactors can only ever use this land as a sheep farm.”
Hey, if I were Helmsley’s dog, I’d be a biter, too.
That’s what I was thinking too. I really was expecting more than leaving some money to her dog from the thread title.
When I first read about the will I too thought “what a crazy bitch.” While that assessment didn’t really change, it’s not because of the will. I realized that yeah, it was her money and she could do whatever she wanted with it. She could have left it all to the dog but she didn’t and she was under no obligation to give money to all her grandchildren, or any of them.
If I had a couple of billion, I might leave a few million to keep my cats in spring water and tuna tartar after I died.
I’m not too picky; I could live with either.
Yeah. She should have left them $40k or something. A friend of mine is a lawyer who has drafted quite a few wills. He always tells his clients that if he leaves out a family member, they can argue that it was an oversight. If they leave a very small amount like $1, they can argue that it was done in a moment of anger. It’s best to leave enough that they can’t make either case.
Anyway, I’m in the “it’s her money to do with as she pleases” camp.
Obviously; I guess I should be sent to the gulag for re-education.
Well, according to CNN :
So, obviously the other two grandkids have done something stupid, hence the fact that they were left out of the will. Who knows what it was, but if she felt they didn’t deserve anything because of their actions, so be it.
She’s probably pissed off the kid is named Meegan. God knows that’d make me disinherit someone in a heartbeat. 
Yeah? Then why do they always cack hairballs ON THE FUCKING CARPET? HUH?
Thats what I thought.
Ha! Yes! 
You have no idea what they did. It could be that they had strong values and refused to support their grandma on what they thought were immoral acts. This, I guess, would be stupid to some and heroic to others.
No doubt it is her money to leave to whom she wishes, and no doubt one has no moral entitlement to money just because you are someone’s descendant; and no doubt leaving the bulk of money to charity is a good thing.
But anyone who leaves more for the upkeep of her pet and tomb than her own grandkids, even the ones she doesn’t disinherit, strikes me on first glance as deserving the label of “bitch”.
Either these grandkids were nasty horrible people, or she was. Or possibly both.
Any word on how old the grandkids are and how much they’ve already inherited from other sources? Just out of curiosity.
I’m definitely in the ‘it’s her money’ camp. Here’s hoping that the dog can be retrained now that there’s no one egging it on.
Well, if they disagree with her on a strong, moral level- then why the hell would they want her dirty money? I’m sure if what you are saying is the case, they are perfectly content not dirtying their hands on her money.
My father’s mother was a hateful, cruel and selfish woman, who, after how she treated my mother, my sisters and me during her life, I wanted nothing from when she died. She was supposedly quite well-to-do, and I can pretty much guarantee that both of her children (my father and his sister), and all her other grandchildren were included in her will somehow. I never even inquired about it, as I had no interest in one thing that bitch had, and no desire to profit from her death.
For all we know, the 2 excluded Helmsley grandchildren couldn’t give a shit about the old biddy’s money.