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He treated me terribly and I'm still getting over it. And I'm not sure what she intended.
  • good point

    Isn't it likely that the grandmother split the money between the partners for tax reasons? This way, the couple wouldn't have to pay taxes on the gift (if it was less than $11K each, I think). So, she might have wanted to give it all to her grandson, but split it to avoid losing some to taxes. I don't think there's any way you are either entitled to the money or can keep it. It might not have even really been meant for you in the first place.

    That's a good point.

    If the LW wants to just grab whatever money she can from her ex's family, then fine, keep it. It shows a lack of morals though.

    The number of "take the money and run, because you can" type comments, with no thought for ethics, shows a lot of the comments here come from money grubbing types.

    If it's about honoring the Grandmother's wishes then give it back to the family, maybe keep a small portion like $1-2K that the grandmother might have left the LW if she'd lived longer, knew they were separating, and had time to alter her will.

    But get real, it would be extremely unlikely that a grandmother would leave her grandson's ex the money if she'd lived a short while longer. How often does that happen. If the LW keeps the money, she's just taking advantage of the misfortunate timing of the grandmother's death, which isn't quite as bad as mugging old ladies, but up there.