This may be more of a GQ, but since it’s about Patrick Swayze I’ll put it in here.
Five years after he died his mother and siblings have decided that they don’t like or trust his will. He left the vast majority of his estate to his widow, Lisa Niemi, and bequests to others including her brother. The family said he didn’t even like her brother and that his signature on the will was forged.
Question: He and Lisa Niemi were married for 34 years; they married when they were unknown and if not broke then certainly not super rich. Swayze’s multimillion dollar estate ($40 million according to Celebrity Net Worth but I think they have a tendency to go really high in their estimates, but I’m sure it was up there) was entirely accrued during their marriage.
Supposedly a handwriting expert has said it was not his signature on the will, but he was dying of cancer that exhausted his strength and his handwriting was probably barely more than a mark.
Wouldn’t she be entitled to ALL of it if he didn’t have a will?
And if he made significant legacies to his mother and siblings in a previous will, that wouldn’t be something they would necessarily know would it?
It’s difficult to supply a link, but it’s easily googled as it’s been in the news a bit lately.
They do where I live- two witnesses in fact- but I have no idea if California is different (assuming his will is from California- I know he had property elsewhere).
Here is Nolo’s chart of intestate succession in California. Where there’s no will and there’s a spouse and parents but no children, then the parents get half of his separate (i.e., non-community) property.
(Standard legal disclaimers apply; do not rely on this post to make a claim on the Swayze estate ).
His family is probably out of luck depending upon when the will was dated, who witnessed the signing of the will (especially if it was Swayze’s attorney of record), and if he was mentally impaired in any manner when the will was signed. Simply not leaving them any money probably isn’t going to be viewed as a solid reason for a lawsuit to proceed to trial.
Unfortunately, they’ll probably make some lawyers rich finding this out for themselves.
It could be that they basically tried to be friendly and keep good relations with her thinking she was going to shoot them some cash. But after five years, they realize that’s not gonna happen.
“According to a new report, his relatives were shocked when a “surprise” will that left his entire estate — valued at an estimated $40 million — to his widow, Lisa Niemi was filed in a New Mexico court this past August.”
They couldn’t challenge it earlier because they didn’t know it existed.
That – assuming it’s accurate – would kind of change the story from “Greedy family of celebrity keeps fighting for five years to take money from grieving widow” to “Five years after celebrity’s death, widow gets remarried and coincidentally produces new will leaving everything to her”.
Which, you know, might make me challenge the will if I was a family member. And I suspect might make a court willing to at least take a look at it. (And why is New Mexico involved when he lived in California? Is this venue-shopping, with New Mexico famous for being reluctant to question authenticity of wills and/or defaulting to pro-widow?)
Of course, In Touch Weekly doesn’t exactly meet legal or scientific standards of evidence, so none of us should assume we know what’s really going on.
I can’t imagine going after my kids spouses for a cut of their money if they died. Especially if they’ve been married for 30+ years. I’m almost 40 and I can’t picture a scenario where I leave my parents any of my money, unless my wife and kids are all dead before me.
Why would his straphangers even think they’d be entitled to any of his earnings to begin with?
And she got married 5 years after he died? Sounds like a pretty reasonable amount of time to me, even after that long of a relationship. Hell, he probably told her to.
I think the reason is that he was supporting all of them while he was alive. He owned the houses they lived in and paid their expenses, which I’d bet occurs more than we imagine.
She became owner of those homes, and as I understand it kept up with all the payouts. But I think since she’s remarried she’d like that to end.
Why would they wait five years to protest? I think because they’re getting cut off, is the reason.
His mother died last year after a long illness. That probably also isn’t coincidental; providing for your ill 80-something mother-in-law is different than able bodied siblings-in-law.
From everything I’m seeing here, Swayze’s family sure isn’t coming off looking very good. Surprised that he left everything to his wife of 34 years?!? I’d be surprised if he didn’t!
One thing I wonder about: was there an earlier will that allotted the estate differently? Isn’t it common when one will is found invalid that the previous (valid) will is then in force?
Perhaps the family knew they were getting some bucks from an old will and want that one to be the official one.
OTOH, given the 5 years, I think a shakedown might explain things. “Give us $X dollars or we’re going to waste $2X dollars of your money in court.”
Story from 2014…says will filed this past August (2014? 2013?). Will was signed shortly before his death in 2009… So she claims to have a will leaving everything to her and kept it under wraps for 5 years?
Even if Swayze wasn’t medicated to the point of unconsciousness in the months before his death, this would still be suspicious as hell.
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