Leaving a person $1 will not deter them from claiming that the donors were not of sound mind. However, donors should leave them a moderate amount (say 5%) and add the condition that anyone who contests this will in court and loses will receive nothing.
Is that legal?
Conditioning an inheritance on behavior of the recipient after the fact?
(I ain’t no lawyer, obviously. Just curious)
That makes sense then - I just looked up the intestate succession laws for a few states, and in all them, in the absence of a spouse or children, parents have a higher claim to an estate than siblings do.
The wastrel clearly cannot hire a lawyer so he must be working on contingency. But he wouldn’t do that unless he feels there is a plausible case he can make, would he?
The presumption is the wastrel’s attorney is working on contingency. So far, their attorney is out only the cost of a couple of letters, and if the family members had settled, said attorney would have made a tidy profit for a few hours of work. The theory is once the family members indicated they would not settle, the attorney lost interest. But it’s just a theory, and it would be useful to find a way to bring this to a conclusion rather than having a suit hanging over people’s heads.