How Woman Ensured Only One Granddaughter Would Inherit Money Cheered

A deceased woman has been cheered online after it came to light on social media that she'd ensured only one of her grandchildren would inherit her estate.

In a Reddit post put together by the woman's son-in-law, it was revealed that his deceased mother-in-law had blocked one of her two granddaughters from inheriting her life savings because she had already had a child, which went against a clause in her will.

"I have two daughters that were my late mother-in-law's only grandchildren, Elise and Rea. She always favored Elise because Elise wanted to follow in her footsteps and be just like her. She spent so much more time with Elise. She took yet another opportunity to favor Elise by making sure she alone got her tools and a small amount of land that she used to set up greenhouses," the Redditor opened up online.

"She passed a little over a year ago, and we got a letter in the mail about a trust that she had set up about a decade ago. The trust states that it's supposed to be shared equally between her grandchildren and can only be fully dispersed when the youngest is 21. The only two grandchildren are my daughters, Elise and Rea, and Rea just turned 21."

"We asked about it, and got the answer that unfortunately, only Elise is eligible to withdraw any money from this trust. She set up a clause that anyone who had a child before the minimum age to inherit is automatically disqualified. In short, if one of the grandchildren has a baby before age 21, their portion goes to the other heirs. Rea has a two-year-old son and Elise doesn't have kids," he added.

The parent went on to share that he feels hurt and upset by the catch in the trust that her late mother-in-law had set up. He also claimed at the end of the post that Elise was his late mother-in-law's biological granddaughter, while Rea had been adopted.

Mitch Mitchell, an estate planning and probate lawyer based in Texas, offered his take on the sensitive situation to Newsweek. At the moment he's a product counsel at Trust & Will, a firm that offers legally valid documents designed by estate planning attorneys to adhere to individual state guidelines.

"This is especially tough in this situation because it sounds like the Redditor's daughters were too young for either of them to have much say in how 'close' they were with their grandmother," he said. "Their grandmother had a chosen one from the sounds of it."

"Outside of some broad legal strictures, a gift or a condition on a gift cannot be against public policy, their grandmother was free to condition her trust however she wanted. That it might have been a transparent, backhanded way to benefit only one granddaughter is not legally relevant. She was free to make that choice."

"I want to pause here to note that this choice is hurtful. This is something that conscientious estate planners discuss with their clients. That conversation reinforces the freedom of the client to determine how they want their wealth to pass, but they should be mindful of the fallout," he added.

Mitchell went on to argue that conflict can either be inherent to the family or it can arise from the plan itself, which in this case saw the deceased woman choosing to benefit one person over another when they'd otherwise have equal footing as heirs, as with two granddaughters.

What Do the Comments Say?

Since it was shared to the social media platform on September 6 by u/SteppenWolf0007, the Reddit post has been upvoted by 78 percent of the users who engaged with it and commented on more than 4,000 times. The majority of the users reacting to the post have criticized the Redditor for going against his late mother-in-law's wishes.

"You are the a****** for leaving out that Rea is your mother-in-law's step grandchild, and Elise is her biological grandchild. That's a pretty critical part of the story," one user wrote.

Another user added: "Not only that, regardless of the Redditor's feelings on the matter, the grandmother's will was her feelings on the matter."

The Reddit post can be seen here.

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