It's comforting to know the problem with families and wills is not exclusive to my own family.
Our family situation is this. My father (rest his soul) worked VERY VERY hard all his life. He only had a grade 6 education but he was a good businessman and a good provider. Our family lived a very modest life with no extras but we had food on the table, a roof over our heads and thankfully our health. My father put everything into his business and over the years built it up into a successful business. He worked 16 hour days and I rarely got to spend time with him because he was often working to provide for the family. My mother also worked out of the home - she was a nurse and worked part-time and had 5 kids. I'm the youngest of the five.
The "family" business was my father's world. He ate, breathed and slept the business and when the day came that my two older brothers joined the business was one of great pride for my father. He showed them the trade and worked diligently to make sure his standards for quality where shared by his two sons. All of us kids at one time or another worked in the family business but for various lengths of time. My two brothers held out though and eventually the business became quite lucrative. Both are very well off today.
My father passed away 6 and a half years ago. His will was read by my mother and my two brothers who were also his business partners, but for the rest of us the will was kept a secret for all these years. A couple years ago, my one brother accidentally mentioned that I and my remaining two siblings had some money coming to us from our father's estate. I didn't act on it at the time and simply shrugged it off. Then I came upon some hard times and remembered this conversation we once had. I was disappointed with my family because I had come upon some very hard and trying times in my life and was disappointed that my family hadn't stepped up to help. After all, if what my brother was saying was true then why didn't they attempt to pay me my entitlements left by my father. So I hired a lawyer to first get a copy of my father's will and see for myself first hand what it was all about. The secrecy about my father's will really hurt me. I felt betrayed by people within my very own family. Afterall, one should be able to trust one's own family right???
Anyway, to make a long story short. The will named me and my other three siblings a beneficiary to several small legacies; however, seeing that my mother is still living - everything went to her. Disappointed I was but don't get me wrong. It wasn't so much the money or lack thereof that disappointed me. The fact was my mother became a partner in the business partnership with my two older brothers. She is now 73 years old and living on old age pension. Although she worked all her lifetime she never participated in a pension because of her part-time work status. So essentially she is living on this fixed income plus a little bit of money she is getting from selling off her and my father's assets. My brothers are not paying my mother a DIME from the business and yet she is a one-third partner. If my father were alive I would hope my brothers would have paid him a very well deserved pension. Afterall, they would not be as well off today as they are if it weren't for my father's sacrifices and hard work. They were essentially handed over the golden egg and didn't have to pay a cent for it. Granted they are working very hard today to maintain the status quo but frankly the point is their success is largely due to my father. So much for a "family" business as my father put it.
Anyway, my mother is living on what she can and making do but could be doing better had she taken my advice 6 years ago. But she didn't and now she is living the consequences. The thing is our family suffered together when things in the business weren't so great way back when and now the only one to reap these rewards are my two older brothers. Myself and my remaining two siblings will have nothing. My mother will likely sell of the remainder of the assets in order to live and there will be nothing left for us. Selfish? You may think so but I don't quite see it that way. First and foremost, my interest was to protect my mother's interests in the business but she chose to "trust" her sons and didn't act on my advice. Secondly, if there was something as in money to be distributed among the remaining children then I think we are entitled to it. Afterall, it was my piano recital and my dance and my graduation that my father missed as a result of work. I think those memories lost are worth something wouldn't you think? No amount of money could replace the feeling of having had my father present but since he wasn't and their is no memory of it now then why not have some sort of compensation. Why should my two older brothers reap all of my father's hard work and sweat. Afterall, he did produce three other children.
I'm very angry at my brothers for this. I blame them entirely and I truly see their true colors. Greed is an ugly thing. I'm also angry at my mother for being soo naive and stupid about the whole situation. I mean what in heavens name was she thinking?
(Original Airdate: 11/29/05) When you imagine receiving an inheritance, you might dream that all your financial problems would be solved. But sometimes, the money is more trouble than it's worth. Eighty-four-year-old Aileen inherited a 2,000-acre farm after her husband died. But is her granddaughter, Amber, jumping the gun by wanting her mother's name on the title now? Then, Tracy says her 19-year-old son, Mark, changed when he came into a large inheritance this year after his dad passed away. She says the money wasn't what changed her son, but his long-lost friend, Brandon. Talk about the show here. 
