Letters to the Editor

• This is Both a Legal *and* Ethical Issue

  [Read the article: My ex's grandmother left me some money -- should I share it with him?]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I think what a lot of people are ignoring here is that if the there's both a legal and ethical issue here.

  Legally, the LW can refuse the money in the first place, and just not take any part of the grandmother's estate. What will happen to the money depends on how the will is written. If the will specified "$10K to ex and $10K to LW" then the LW's ex won't get an extra penny despite the LW's refusal to accept it. If it specified "$20K to ex and LW, to be split between them" then if LW refuses the inheritance then the ex will receive the extra. In the former case, the $10K will be treated as part of "the remainder of the estate."

  The only way to guarantee that the ex specifically will get the money, regardless of the will's language, is for the LW to accept it and then gift it to him. The amount is small enough the LW would not have to pay gift taxes on it, so thankfully there would not be any tax consequences for taking and passing along the money.

  So truly, the LW has three choices:

  1 - Accept the money the grandmother left her in the will.

  2 - Decide that she should not accept the grandmother's money at all, and tell the executor of the estate that news, even though the LW may not know what the ultimate destination will be for that money.

  3 - Decide that specifically, this is money that the ex should have, and accept the money but give it to him.

  If you don't feel close enough to the family that you think you should have received an inheritance, the most effective way to follow his grandmother's wishes is actually to take action (2). Whether your ex gets the money or not is up to her (or rather, her will).

  Permalink Tuesday, March 13, 2007 06:21 AM