It’s a common scene in TV and movies: someone dies, usually someone very wealthy, and the family and others, still dressed like they came directly from the funeral, gather in a lawyer’s fancy office or some large stately room somewhere, presumably in the deceased’s mansion, and someone official-looking reads out loud the last will and testament, always resulting in much drama and controversy. Sometimes items are literally collected and left with as the bequeathed items are read off, like some bizarre real-time auction.
I assume this is almost entirely fiction, right? Or does something resembling this ever actually occur?
In our State, the reading of the will simply doesn’t exist. It doesn’t stop clients from asking about the reading of the will, but no matter what, the answer is still the same: reading of the will doesn’t exist. So if there is no gathering of the beneficiaries, how will people know what they’ve inherited? Through more conventional and practical means of communication of course.
This means letters, emails and any other form of written communication are the ways in which the beneficiaries find out what they’ve inherited. The will, will be presented before the probate court. Once presented, important information regarding the estate plan will be served upon the party or parties interested. This allows them to have access to vital information regarding the decedent’s estate.
That’s it. That’s the entire process. There is no reading of the will in which the lawyer sits with the family and discusses what everyone got
In my experience, there is an executor who takes care of following the wishes of the deceased. That can be a lawyer or a relative or pretty much anyone the deceased has selected (or paid) to do the job. In my mother’s case, it was my nephew.
Great question DCnDC! I’ve often wondered about it myself but never got around to asking.
A follow-up question would be did such things ever occur in the past, even if only under rare or unusual circumstances, or is the whole idea a completely never-ever happened fiction? If it is a never-ever happened fiction my hats off to the writer who first came up with it since it provides added drama and suspense to almost any story.
We met with the family lawyer for a explanation of a few things on my mom’s death. My sister was executor. We all had copies of her will from before. Really just a get together. No massive mansion, no violent storms with lightning, no flickering power, no desperate screams, no one discovered with a knife in the back. Pretty boring actually. It wasn’t called a reading or anything official.
I might point out that at least in Cuyahoga County, Ohio there is no official filing of a will. I hired a local lawyer who typed up the will according to my wishes and had it signed and witnessed. I get a copy and she retained one. It’s up to me completely as to what to do with it. If I didn’t tell anyone where I put the will it might take some time before it was found.
You have to hear the entire “Boot to the head” skit from their CD, about learning martial arts.
“Learning the way of Tai Kwan Li is not a path to a door but a road leading forever to the horizon…”
“Forever…??? I want to learn how to beat people up right now! I already got the fancy pajamas! Hya! Hya!”
Oh, yes, I love that sketch, too. My understanding is that the will-reading sketch was their first “boot to the head” routine, and they revisited the catchphrase for the later “Ti Kwan Leep” sketch.
It can happen in real life. After my grandmother’s burial we did gather in her parlor whilethe will was read. It just made sense because everyone was already together
Can a person write in their will that beneficiaries must gather in one place for a reading of the will and, if they do not show up, they don’t get their bit?
I can imagine a petty person maybe wanting to gather people together so they could air some grievances and make sure everyone knows it.
My family lived about a thousand miles from my uncle. When he died, his lawyers mailed us a copy of the will, and a few forms to fill out (information for his state’s tax authorities). Shortly thereafter, they mailed us our inheritances.
