Each of these scenarios presents arguments on both sides, usually centering on whether the person making the transfer did so freely, because he or she truly wanted to, or rather because he or she felt coerced or trapped. When a person is dependent on another, there is often a question as to how much free will that person really has.
There are many greedy people who make a living out of scamming the elderly and infirm out of their assets. The person promises to take care of the elder, gradually isolates him or her from family and friends, and then subtly, or not so subtly, threatens to leave the elder all alone if he or she does not give control to the "friend." This is elder abuse. There are criminal charges and heavy financial penalties for these actions.
But elder abuse can be very hard to detect, and very hard to prove. It happens in private. There are usually no third-party witnesses. It takes real skill and experience to ferret out all of the evidence of elder abuse and to get that evidence considered in court.
And on the other hand, the world seems to have a never-ending supply of distant relatives who are sure that the person leaving money to a friend could not have done so willingly. Blood relations are often respected in a court proceeding over a trust or will. It can be difficult to disprove a relative’s claim that he or she and the decedent had a great relationship until the friend came along and poisoned the decedent’s mind against the relative. Here, too, it is experience in handling many cases like this that gives an attorney the ability to paint an accurate picture for a judge.
Very often, lawsuits can be avoided. An estate attorney, who is free from the emotion and drama that naturally occurs when a loved one dies, should first try to defuse a client’s outrage over, for example, being questioned like a criminal, or treated like he or she meant nothing to the decedent. A voice of reason that interprets both sides’ arguments in a nonjudgmental way can go far toward resolving issues. It also helps when an attorney can bring hard-fought experience to the table and present a realistic appraisal of how strong a party’s evidence really is, and what arguments will matter in court.
But where money is at stake, sometimes people will not see reason. We fight for what is right. You deserve nothing less.
Life gets complicated. Many conflicts over estate and trust matters have to do with whether the person managing the assets has performed his or her duties appropriately and fairly. But most conflicts come about when a person: 1) leaves property to his or her natural heirs but in unequal shares; 2) remarries after a death or divorce, and there are children from the first marriage; or 3) leaves property to a caregiver or longtime friend instead of to relatives.
