Making a will is one of the most important things one can do to prepare for dying.
It helps put your affairs in order, hopefully eliminating conflict among your remaining family.
The idea should be that nobody is left arguing over who gets what.
Advert
Wills are also, surprisingly, a way of making your feelings known.
Even while you're six feet under.
A disappointed grandfather gave his grandkids the ultimate snub by leaving them only £50 each.
Advert
That might be all he could spare, you might think.
Oh no, he had a £500,000 fortune.
Fredrick Ward Sr threw his family into a major row after his death in 2020.
While his son Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire got most of his fortune and his £450,000 flat, his dead son Fred Jr's kids got nothing.
Advert
Why did they get left the square root of squat?
Apparently, the 91-year-old had told his lawyers that he was upset they hadn't visited him when he was hospitalised three times with a lung condition.
When the grandkids discovered they had been left out, they weren't happy.
Carol Growing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett teamed up to sue.
But a High Court judge, Master James Brightwell, ruled that Ward's will, written in 2018, was based on rational grounds.
Advert
These rational grounds being that they had limited contact with him in his final years.
As he threw out their case, Master Brightwell remarked: "Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator's child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child's issue.
"However, the decision not to do so and to split the residue and thus the bulk of the estate between his surviving children can hardly be said to be provision which no reasonable testator could make."
The sisters claimed that their aunt and uncle had 'unduly influenced' Ward into giving them more of the estate.
Advert
A recording of Ward's will reading was played to the court - which showed the moment the family got embroiled in a huge shouting match.
Master Brightwell concluded: "In those circumstances, and despite a promise by Fred several years earlier to divide his estate between his children's children if anything should happen to any of them, the 2018 will was in my view entirely rational.
"This does not mean that I cannot understand the claimants' disappointment at being essentially left out."
Featured Image Credit: Champion News