Respecting someone's Wishes

Julia said:

The other thing you might not like, DB008, is that if someone challenges a Will their legal costs will usually come out of the Estate. Anecdotally I've heard of situations where most of the Estate has been eroded by the costs of all the legal wrangling.

Click to expand...

This was mentioned on QI the other night. It ended when the estate ran out of money - 117 tears. If this is so it must have carried on through generations. And hats off to the tenacity (& "pig-headedness") of the law firms & the relatives.

"When the biggest miser in the world forgot his reading glasses it lead to a legal case lasting over a century. A man called Jennens was going to sign his will, but forgot his glasses so took the will home and planned to sign it later. However, he died before signing it. This resulted in the rest of his family fighting bitterly to collect the fortune, in a case called Jennens vs. Jennens. The case started in 1798 and did not end until 1915 because the entire estate ran out of money. This case was the basis of the Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce case in Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which was written in 1852."

I can see some links to Basilio's thread about what Governments should be allowed to do.
The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to say "Governments should stay out of private lives." That includes bedrooms and financial arrangements, bequests, wills.

IMHO, it is nobody else's business what I do with property that's legally mine.
Nor do I want anybody else to meddle in how I conduct, safeguard, and end my life.