{"id":277331,"date":"2026-02-06T14:43:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/277331\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:43:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:43:22","slug":"the-golden-child-who-defied-her-fathers-plan-for-his-million-dollar-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/277331\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018golden child\u2019 who defied her father\u2019s plan for his million-dollar estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The beneficiary: \u201cMarilyn\u201d is a 47-year-old communication strategist in British Columbia. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s in a long-term common-law relationship, has no children, and in recent years saw both her parents pass away in short succession. She\u2019s the only living child of her parents\u2019 marriage, though her father had two other children through an earlier marriage \u2013 Marilyn\u2019s much-older half-siblings with whom she has a \u201cfriendly, but distant\u201d relationship.<\/p>\n

The inheritance: Nobody expected Marilyn\u2019s mother to die before her husband, least of all her father himself. \u201cDad wasn\u2019t in great health for a while so we all expected he\u2019d go first and leave everything to Mom, who\u2019d handle everything,\u201d explains Marilyn. As such, while her Type-A mother\u2019s will and estate was long planned and very clear \u2013 everything would go to her only remaining child \u2013 Marilyn\u2019s 80-year-old, procrastination-prone, Type-B father didn\u2019t even have a will. Marilyn promptly dragged him to a notary. <\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly I was solely responsible for my dad \u2013 a man who\u2019d never gone grocery shopping or paid bills or managed his household,\u201d says Marilyn, who was her father\u2019s executor and power of attorney atop everything else. Her father was \u201cuncharacteristically co-operative,\u201d she notes, and very grateful for his daughter\u2019s help, especially since he had minimal contact with his other children, which Marilyn doesn\u2019t hold against them at all. \u201cMy dad basically left his first family to start a new one, so obviously it\u2019s a complicated situation full of family dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

How a retired accountant spent his frugal father\u2019s inheritance meaningfully<\/a><\/p>\n

Complicating it further, perhaps, were her father\u2019s wishes that Marilyn get the lion\u2019s share of their father\u2019s estate, which Marilyn didn\u2019t consider either fair or wise and said so. \u201cMy siblings are already pretty bitter about our father and this would only make things worse,\u201d she says. But hurt feelings might be the least of her problems; Marilyn also worried they may pursue litigation and take her to court. <\/p>\n

But like dads so often are, her stubborn father insisted his almost-million-dollar estate be divided this way: Marilyn was to receive 50 per cent, her half-sister would get 30 per cent and her half-brother was given 20 per cent. As executor, Marilyn promised to abide by his wishes. As a sister, she had other plans. <\/p>\n

What she did with it: Upon her father\u2019s death, Marilyn met with her own estate lawyer \u2013 whom she\u2019s long known and trusts implicitly \u2013 with an unlikely request. \u201cI explained my father\u2019s will but that I\u2019d like to override his wishes to split the estate three ways,\u201d says Marilyn. Whatever you might be thinking about lawyers, this one commended her generosity and recommended sharing equally. \u201cShe said I was protecting myself from having the will contested, which was possible because anything\u2019s possible, but also that I was doing the right thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Marilyn\u2019s quick to add an important caveat: She\u2019d also inherited additional money from her mother, plus a mortgage-less house to live in, and is much more financially well-off than her siblings. \u201cI feel like I have enough and all my needs are fulfilled,\u201d she says. Would she have made the same decision to share if she were financially strapped, deep in debt or had a gaggle of children needing expensive university tuition? \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. I guess I\u2019ll never know.\u201d <\/p>\n

As is true for all of us, Marilyn only knows her own life and behaves accordingly \u2013 by both her morals and the law, of course. \u201cMy lawyer said I can\u2019t rewrite the will, but I could share my portion by gifting the difference.\u201d <\/p>\n

What she learned: As per usual, all beneficiaries of the estate received a copy of the (previously unseen) will. This one, however, came with a letter from Marilyn\u2019s lawyer stating her client\u2019s wish to instead distribute the estate equally. No word at all about how either half-sibling reacted, as each took the money but neither properly responded. \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019ve never had a conversation with either of them about how they felt about what I did \u2013 not even a thank-you,\u201d says Marilyn, who wasn\u2019t expecting one either. \u201cIt is what it is,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Even if Marilyn was hoping her gift would close the gap between them, she\u2019s not holding her breath nor pushing the issue. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s their responsibility to broach the conversation, if they want to, and they never did so neither did I,\u201d says Marilyn, admitting she was her father\u2019s \u201cgolden child.\u201d Perhaps her gift only reconfirmed these old familial dynamics. Either way, two years and a six-figure olive branch after their father\u2019s death, the relationships with her siblings are the same as they always were. <\/p>\n

Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. Have you recently received an inheritance and would like to participate in Inherited? Send us an e-mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The beneficiary: \u201cMarilyn\u201d is a 47-year-old communication strategist in British Columbia. She\u2019s in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,266,267,3681],"class_list":{"0":"post-277331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-r-fp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}