Inheritance battles are a popular theme in fiction. (Any Succession fans out there?) But one Reddit user claims it’s become her life.
Speaking to the ‘AITAH‘ community, the woman revealed that her late great-aunt supposedly left her $700K, and now that the lady has passed, it should have been transferred to her bank account.
Only there’s one catch. The Redditor’s mother doesn’t approve of the “dirty” money and has made it her mission to stop the transaction.
This woman reportedly inherited $700K of her great-aunt’s poker winnings
However, her mother thinks the money is “dirty” and that she shouldn’t accept it
This particular inheritance dispute is quite atypical
In their study, UK-based researchers Stephan Köppe, who is an Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the University College Dublin, and Misa Izuhara, a Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bristol, set out to understand why families go to court to fight over inheritances.
“[We found that] families go to court if there is something worth fighting for,” Köppe wrote. “Smaller inheritance disputes are more likely to be settled out of court.”
According to the researchers, a lot of trouble is associated with physical assets, as they are extremely hard to share and distribute, and things like a family home can become a difficult matter (especially if, for example, one child continues to live in the family home).
It’s even worse for physical assets relating to a working business, such as farmland. “Typically, people aim to protect the family business by passing it on to one heir,” Köppe explained. “Problems can arise, though, if a family member is promised the inheritance or given a ‘verbal indication’ that they will receive it – and perhaps works in the business in expectation of it – and is then left out of the will.”
So the fact that the Redditor and her mom are having arguments over money makes this particular case a bit atypical. As does their relation to one another.
“Most of the conflicts we came across in our research took place among members of the same generation,” Köppe added. “Sibling rivalry and envy is a key reason to go to court … More siblings and a large extended family make it harder to find common ground about a fair share of assets.”
As her story went viral, the author of the Reddit post joined the discussion in the comments and said that she was “saddened and worried” about losing the relationship she has with her mom.
Hopefully, they’ll find a way to put aside their differences.
Image credits: Javon Swaby (not the actual photo)
People have had a lot of strong reactions to the story
