Did you know that 10% of parents disinherit at least one child? This is fact. Some of us might be shocked, but disinheritance is on the rise. My Aunt Roz is one of these mothers who disinherited her son. Here is her story. Aunt Roz is in a nursing home. She is 83 years old. She made her fortune in the stock market. When Aunt Roz turned 65 she revised her will leaving her entire fortune to her one son, Jim. She specifically wrote her other son, Steven, out of her will. Her legal counsel revises her will every year so there is no mistake as to her intentions. She has not changed her mind. Why would she do this?

She said, “My son Steven was never there for me. Like when I fell and broke my hip. Or when I was starting to go blind. He was only there when he needed money. When I finally went into a nursing home, he came over to me with a power of attorney and insisted I sign over my rights on all matters to him. Alarms went off in my mind. I may be blind, but I’m of sound mind, and besides…I’m not stupid.”

So she wrote him out of her will. Does he know? Probably not, but she doesn’t care. “It’s not as if I ever hear from him anyway.”

We Moms always feel we should be fair, that we should divide everything by the number of kids we have. But this isn’t always the correct thing to do.

By writing Steven out of her will, Aunt Roz actually rests in peace knowing her assets will go to the one who cares.

The moral here is to think through everything you do so you feel comfortable with your legacy. After all, it’s your money and your belongings!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Women Only. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.