{"id":111503,"date":"2025-09-03T12:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T12:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111503\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T12:48:08","slug":"how-a-siblings-unexpected-emergency-put-an-equal-inheritance-to-the-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111503\/","title":{"rendered":"How a sibling\u2019s unexpected emergency put an equal inheritance to the test"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images.<\/p>\n

The beneficiary: \u201cKyle\u201d is a 69-year-old retired business owner who lives in Northern Ontario. \u201cGo a few hours south and then you\u2019ll hit North Bay,\u201d he says, laughing. One of seven siblings, Kyle is a happily married family man with three kids and a gaggle of grown grandchildren who keep this boomer couple always busy and on the move. <\/p>\n

The inheritance: Last year, Kyle\u2019s mother passed away at age 96. With co-operation from his siblings, he had been managing his mom\u2019s finances for 15 years, winding down her remaining RRIF and several GICs that were laddered out over her final years. Even as the family finance manager, the contents of the will \u2013 which was rewritten a few times over the years \u2013 were largely unknown. \u201cI was privy to some of the information in the will, but not all of it,\u201d Kyle says. <\/p>\n

Upon the reveal, large amounts of his mother\u2019s remaining estate went to various charities and the rest was divided equally between the five surviving siblings (and, very kindly, the other two\u2019s widows). After settling the final income tax, accounting and legal bills, each received nearly $50,000. \u201cEverybody was treated exactly equally,\u201d Kyle says. Perfectly fair, right? <\/p>\n

Expecting to receive an inheritance? Here are some common pitfalls to watch out for<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, just a few days after Kyle\u2019s mother passed away, one of his brothers suffered a massive stroke. Though he\u2019d made his share of statements of intent, he\u2019d never actually gotten around to writing them down to update his will. Now he has dementia and memory problems, so he\u2019s had to move into a long-term care home that costs more than $10,000 out of pocket per month. Suddenly, what\u2019s \u201cfair\u201d isn\u2019t quite so clear. <\/p>\n

What he\u2019s doing with it: Right now, Kyle is minding his business while his brother\u2019s immediate family decides how they want to proceed. \u201cHis assets are having to be sold, and it\u2019s causing some friction between his children and his new wife,\u201d he says. Animosity is mounting all around, and Kyle\u2019s siblings can\u2019t agree on the best course of action or what his brother would want. \u201cI have my thoughts on what should happen, but at this point it\u2019s not my decision to make,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, the unfortunate situation has completely changed Kyle\u2019s plans \u2013 not just for his inheritance, but the entirety of his accumulated wealth. To protect his immediate family from a similar fate, he explains, \u201cI kept a portion for myself in case of emergency and set up several insurance policies in case anything like this ever happens to me.\u201d <\/p>\n

The rest (likely close to seven figures, as the estate continues to climb in value) will go to his three sons \u2013 not in surprise, equally sized lump sums after his death, but in manageable increments over the next few years according to particular needs and situations, all while Kyle keeps tabs to make sure things even out (almost) perfectly in the end. <\/p>\n

The revelation: Since his brother\u2019s stroke, Kyle has thought a lot about how he might better incorporate the notion of need into his understanding of equality. \u201cOne of my sons has quite a good job but he won\u2019t ever have much of a pension. Another has a tough time managing his money. The youngest is very good at managing money, but he has some mental-health challenges to consider,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

When an inheritance comes with stipulations: \u2018They want control from the grave\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Life isn\u2019t fair, but Kyle\u2019s hoping his new inheritance strategy will have his sons taking care of each other along the way \u2013 hopefully without mounting resentments that one received so much more than another. \u201cMaybe not all at the same time, but if I give one son $30,000 because he needs it,\u201d he explains, \u201cI\u2019ll give another the same amount when the circumstances change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Kyle didn\u2019t procrastinate on the new plan. \u201cI\u2019ve learned that anything can happen and often does, so you can\u2019t wait.\u201d Telling people what you want isn\u2019t enough, and you just might set your family up for inevitable or even insurmountable conflict. Unlike his own parents, Kyle\u2019s going the full-disclosure route, shouting his inheritance plans far and wide.<\/p>\n

Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. We want to thank them for sharing their story. 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: Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,11749,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-111503","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-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-r-fp","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}