Maybe paperwork needs to be signed. But in the trope version there’s always some people who get nothing or something worthless as the executor explains in the deceased’s words how awful they are. And the “winner” is typically a surprise.
The last time I dealt with a lawyer was my divorce. There were no surprises in the courtroom. Someone inheriting a penny as an insult will know that and isn’t going to bother to show up to sign the paperwork.
I think a reading of the will falls into the same category as an officiant at a wedding asking if anyone has any objections to the union and y’all better speak now or forever hold your peace.
mmm
If anyone wants to see a realistic portrayal of a typical will reading - relevant portion begins at 20:00.
Anyone else think or Ralph Kramden upon inheriting the old lady’s “Fortune”? “I’m RICH!” 
Wow, what a gag. I think comedy has come a long way.
Nothing you see on TV is right.
Not even the weather forecast
As I’ve said before, I was very disappointed that my mother’s will just involved my brother and I (co-executors and sole beneficiaries) meeting at the lawyer’s office, rather than gathering at a spooky old mansion where we would be required to spend the night.
My wife’s mother died a few months ago, and my wife is currently serving as executor of her estate (actually, the term in Indiana seems to be “personal representative” these days). It involves various amounts of paperwork, so a lawyer is useful to have helping you in terms of knowing what to file with the court, and how to do so. But there was no formal “reading of the will.” It wasn’t really necessary in any case, since her mother had given a copy of her will to both my wife and my wife’s brother, who were the only heirs. Everyone involved already knew exactly what they were going to inherit.
In your will, could you order the lawyer to rent a spooky old house for the reading?
When my parents died, they each had a copy of their wills in their files, and we were able to read them directly without a lawyer. The lawyer handled the legal end, but we knew how things were going to be shared.
Indeed it has.
I just watched a show that hit every note of this trope - family gathers to hear the reading of the will, estranged family member unexpectedly shows up, nearly the entire fortune is left to estranged family member, to the shock of everyone except the audience, and finally, all family members are required to follow the lawyer out to the garden so he can unveil a statue of the deceased.
There is one more thing that happens occasionally, as well: rather than simply having the lawyer read the will, the deceased has made a video recording, so that they can “personally” shaft all of their greedy relatives face-to-face, as it were.
Or boot-to-the-head, as the case may be.
That seems absurd. Who would fight over such a small piece of a tiny estate? I mean, lawyer fees alone would probably eat most of what you’d end up with.
You don’t know my family.
When my mother’s parents died within a year of each other, the estate, mostly land and cash, was divvied up equally between all eight children, and each received about $100k. No problems there. But when it came time to remove everything from the house, like keepsakes and furniture, the wars began. Serious fighting over stuff that had virtually no resale value and sentimental value only to the children, not to us grandkids.
If you have never been a party to the division of an estate, you likely have little idea how petty and vicious family members can be towards each other.
I’ve known of several instances in which a family would have appeared to be within the bounds of reasonable towards each other, yet things got VERY ugly over negligible estates. All too often, the settling of an estate provides the impetus for raising real and perceived slights and grievances dating back decades.
If your family avoids such ugliness, consider yourselves fortunate.
My mom died over the course of a month in her (rented) home. We all got to spend time with her and with each other during her final month. She had a very basic will, but there were a few things she wanted specific people to have.
She had a car that was in great shape and paid for. She suggested that my sister’s daughter in law get the car, since she had been using it to run errands for my mom. We transferred the title. There was a beautiful ring my mom wanted my daughter to have, for some private reason that my daughter and she knew (turns out she used it as part of her wedding rings).
After that kind of stuff was divided up, my mom suggested her cash be used to establish an education fund for her great-grandkids. My brother set up the fund and the stipulations for use. In the ten years that have gone by it has grown considerably.
One way to handle distributing estate items is to allow the heirs to pick one item at a time, rotating through all the heirs. Rather than having one person deciding who gets what and dealing with all the drama, the heirs pick the items themselves. That may not eliminate the drama, but if someone is mad that they didn’t get a specific item, it’s going to be more of their own fault for picking other items first.
And that’s exactly what my own parents did BEFORE they passed. We all picked one item that we really wanted; fortunately, we all chose a different item. After that, it was basically “Does anybody want this?” until we were all satisfied. After Mom passed, and we retrieved the items we had spoken for, the rest of her stuff was donated, because each of us had what we wanted.