Transcript
A (0:02)
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B (0:06)
Today's question comes from David in Massachusetts. My father suddenly passed away recently and did not make the will he always planned to create. He owned five properties and only two have mortgages. He also owned a business with a partner which brings in close to 1 million in residuals annually. My mother is not in the picture, and I have an older brother who has. Has a substance abuse problem. My father did not inherit any money from his parents and built all this from the ground up. So I want to honor him by making sure none of this goes to waste. My brother will waste away his half of the inheritance on drugs if he gets access to it. My name will be the only one on the death certificate, and our attorney will file for me to be the head of his estate. Is there anything I can legally do to prevent my brother from getting a lump sum?
A (0:58)
You need to seek legal counsel that really knows what they're doing. No, I doubt it. I think he's going to get his lump sum unless he's declared incompetent by the court, unable to take care of his own affairs, and just being stupid or doing drugs is not going to cause that to happen. Stupid, immature drug person is not going to. That's not incompetent by legal terms. My mother's not in the picture. She is now. If you're. If they were married or if they are. If they were married at the time of his death, she's very much in the picture, whether you want her to be or not. So, again, we're not attorneys in Massachusetts, so you need legal advice in Massachusetts where you are. And my suspicion is Massachusetts has some wicked crazy probate laws because there's some other stuff on the books there that's wild. And so wouldn't surprise me a bit, but you need to find out what you're dealing with. Okay. So in most states, if your mother is alive and they're still married, she's gonna get at least half of these assets whether you wanted her to or anybody else wanted it to. And your brother. If not, if she's dead or they're divorced and gone or whatever, and she's really not in the picture legally, then you and your brother are going to get half each. And I'm not aware of anything you can do to legally prevent your brother from getting his half. Now, what I would do, if that's the case when you sit down with your attorney, is I would sit down with your brother and say, look, I love you dad loved you. I don't want you to use this to od. I don't want you to use this and have nothing to show for it later. If you would allow me to manage your half for you until you get through these, this part of your life, I will do that as a favor to you because I'm very afraid that you're going to end up with nothing. What do you think? And see what he says. And again, what percentage of guys in this situation are going to go, oh, yeah, why don't you take care? None. But it's worth asking. But that's probably. Persuasion is probably your only technique. Yeah.