The decedent in this case was the mother of three adult daughters and a force to be reckoned with. She had been suffering with an aggressive and painful form of cancer for upward of three years, but she remained strong-willed throughout her battle with the illness. Her mental faculties had ostensibly remained just as strong, with lapses in cognition occurring rarely, if ever.
While the implicitly disinherited daughter and her daughter (the decedent’s granddaughter) had been caring for the decedent and tending to her needs, they were experiencing burnout from doing so, which caused them to take a step back. This led to our client stepping in to play the role of caretaker in the final and most challenging months of the decedent’s life.
Our client, however, didn’t just step in; she moved in. She took a family leave from her job to live with her mother and provide her with 24/7 care. She bathed her, prepared her meals and transported her to and from her doctor appointments. In other words, she upended her life to be there for her mother during her exceptionally difficult final days.
The expressly disinherited daughter had been close with their mother and was in communication with her regularly via phone and text, but she lived across the country and had a very demanding job. Our client stated that when this sister would visit their mother in person, she was consumed with work and would conduct business in her mother’s home, which bothered their mother.
The decedent had a deep spiritual connection to her home and desired for it to be a place of tranquility. She was adamant about keeping distractions out of her home and only allowing those into her home who would fully support her process.
Even though the individual relationship between each of the three daughters and the decedent had been strong, the daughters’ relationships with one another had been strained. The expressly disinherited daughter and our client hadn’t spoken in over a decade, and the other daughter and our client spoke sometimes, but they hadn’t been on the best of terms.
Upon sensing that her death may be imminent, the decedent reached out to a who had been recommended to her by an acquaintance. She informed him that she wished to create an estate plan. Our client accompanied her mother to the meeting with the attorney, but she was asked to leave the room once discussions about her mother’s estate plan were started. The attorney provided the decedent with a questionnaire to complete as homework, which would help him in the eventual drafting of her estate planning documents.
At this time, the decedent had been in poor physical health and had arrived at the attorney’s office in a wheelchair. That’s why the attorney found it perfectly reasonable that our client helped fill out the questionnaire on behalf of her mother. The attorney read aloud the responses from the questionnaire with both the decedent and our client present. He later would use terms such as “assertive” and “unequivocal” to describe the decedent’s demeanor during that meeting.
The estate plan that ultimately was created as a result of this meeting would name our client as the trustee of the decedent’s trust, the beneficiary of her residence and a residual beneficiary (meaning that she would inherit whatever assets remained in the trust). One other sister had also been named a residual beneficiary, whereas the other sister had been expressly disinherited.
At this point, you are probably wondering why a mother would disproportionately favor one of her children over the others despite having pleasant relationships with all of them. We discuss some of the reasons why below.
