No inheritance to evil stepson – Part 1
- I explain how basic wills are inadequate for ensure that parents’ wishes in a blended family are achieved.
We’re all familiar with fictional evil stepmothers, the most classic being Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. There’s also the evil queen in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother who persuades their father to abandon the children in the woods.
I’ve never heard of the reverse scenario of a fictional evil stepchild.
It would seem that in reality, though, stepmothers don’t have a lock on evil.
Amanda consulted me recently about her stepson, Nicholas.
She fell in love with his father, Robert, when Nicholas was a budding teenager.
She did her very best to nurture a positive relationship with the boy, but Nicholas resisted every step of the way, often showing open hostility to Amanda.
Sixteen years later and Robert no longer tolerates his adult son’s open hostility during visits, but Nicholas ensures Amanda feels it in subtle ways.
Amanda and Robert had wills made early in their relationship.
Their wills mirror each other, with everything going to the other when the first of them dies.
Amanda has no children of her own and at the time she remained optimistic about building a positive relationship with Nicholas. She readily agreed that Nicholas would be the sole beneficiary in each of their wills when the second of them dies.
Amanda has changed her mind.
She will continue to act civilly to her stepson, but she would rather spend eternity in a dark closet full of spiders than for Nicholas to ever inherit anything from her.
She consulted with me about ensuring that doesn’t happen.
She had talked to her husband about making new wills.
They still want all their combined wealth to go to Amanda if Robert dies first, and to Robert if Amanda dies first.
It’s important to each of them that they have full access to their combined wealth to maximize the quality of the rest of their life after the other of them dies.
But when the second of them dies, they want whatever’s left of their combined wealth to be split with Robert’s 50% share going to his chosen beneficiary (Nicholas) and Amanda’s 50% share going to her chosen beneficiary (anyone but Nicholas – likely a charity).
I agreed with the fairness of their plan.
Then I walked Amanda through the practical realities.
Scenario One – Robert dies first
Robert’s will leaves everything to Amanda.
But the law in B.C. allows a biological or adopted child to attack their parent’s will on the basis that it doesn’t make adequate provision for them. Amanda’s evil stepson might attack his father’s will because everything goes to Amanda and nothing goes to him.
Robert and Amanda can avoid this possibility by arranging their affairs so that their combined wealth passes to Amanda outside of Robert’s estate.
If they’re successful, Robert’s will becomes meaningless and the evil stepson can’t do anything except impotently stomp his feet.
I’ve written a multi-part column series about how to do this. Let me know if you have difficulty finding it.
The result is Amanda ending up in complete control of their combined wealth. As they have agreed, she is free to use that wealth to maximize her enjoyment of the rest of her life.
But if she wants to, Amanda might allow her feelings about her evil stepson to overtake her deceased husband’s wishes and make a new will cutting Nicholas out of an inheritance altogether.
Nicholas could do nothing to stop her.
Nicholas cannot attack Amanda’s will because he’s a stepchild and stepchildren have no estate rights.
Scenario Two – Amanda dies first
Under Amanda’s mirror will, everything passes to Robert.
It’s now Robert who has complete control of their combined wealth.
Robert faces the decision of honouring Amanda’s wishes or making a new will leaving everything to Nicholas.
If I put myself in Robert’s shoes, of course I’m going to want my son to receive as much of an inheritance as I can give him.
If Robert decides to honour Amanda’s wishes by leaving his will unchanged, Nicholas can use B.C.’s laws to attack it arguing that the 50% going to him is not adequate.
Because of practical realities, basic wills are inadequate to reliably implement Amanda’s and Robert’s wishes.
Next week I explain how a separate written agreement can help make these wills much more secure and reliable.
