Sell the house as soon as is possible. Leaving the DD in residence sets you up for massive problems in removing her at any later date. Be generous in giving her contents of house that she wants and moving expenses.
If the house is dated I would move her out and do painting, remove old carpeting and possibly redo kitchen. This can make an enormous difference in resale costs. By no means would I allow a college age daughter to move into a house like this and take on maintenance. The money from the house should be put in education or investment accounts.

By the way, I've seen several college age kids ruined by bequests like this.

Anonymous wrote:There is so much projection happening on both threads, it's astounding. Even for DCUM.

Who Presumes to know anything about any other family's internal working or motivations? Jesus H

The projections are because it's an unusual will and circumstances that are a bit unusual, to say the least. People who are familiar with wills, whether because they are lawyers or because of family histories, know that when children and grandchildren exist, the vast, vast, vast majority of wills leave the bulk of the estate's value to them, not to more distant relatives or friends. To tell the story that Larla did on a forum populated by well educated and reasonable people, of course many questions are going to be asked to understand why Thelma wrote the will the way she did. And it's true that we are being told the story from one person's perspective, when there is always two sides to a coin.

If we are to believe Larla's rather complicated story, then Thelma lived most if not her entire life in her childhood house, which she inherited from her parents when orphaned at a young age. Thelma has a younger sister, Larla's grandmother, who presumably should have inherited half the house. Larla never explained what happened to her grandmother's half of the house. It could be that Thelma felt that Larla had "rights" to the ownership of the house for she is also a direct descendant of Thelma's parents, who were the original owner of the house. There could be a story where Thelma felt that as her sister never claimed her half of the house, she thought it just that someone on that side of the family should inherit the house. Nonetheless, if this was the case the motivation would have been clear from the get-go and as it was never brought up by Larla in her initial or subsequent explanations who knows how much weight to attribute to it. But that would be my explanation if I were writing this Agatha Christie spinoff.

There is so much projection happening on both threads, it's astounding. Even for DCUM.

Who Presumes to know anything about any other family's internal working or motivations? Jesus H

Mary would be wise to consider her next steps carefully and not anger Thelma's sister, her aunt. Because if her aunt has a safety net for Mary written into her will now, she still has time to change that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The possibility is that Larla's grandmother influenced Thelma to leave the largest part of the estate to Larla. Larla was not there in the lawyer's office, her grandmother was. Larla's grandmother went to the lawyer's office with Thelma and when they left Larla was getting the Thelma's family home instead of Thelma's children.

This was already covered in the other thread. Thelma and Larla's grandmother were orphaned at 20 and 16 respectively. They remained close their entire lives. It seems Thelma had a distant relationship with her son Roy and she resented her daughter Mary for never leaving the nest despite plenty of support. Given the situation, is it odd that Thelma went with her sister to have the will written? Not really.

Those are Larla's perceptions of the situation. There are a number of sides to every story and I suspect we'd hear a very different take on the situation if the other characters in this tale could tell us their points of view. It also would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall of the lawyer's office the day Thelma and her sister were there.

I wonder how Thelma's sister's will is written. Since Thelma left a very valuable part of her estate to her sister's grandchild, does anyone think that the sister in return is leaving valuable assets to Thelma's grandchildren when she passes away? Did the close sisters have an agreement to leave valuable assets to each other's grandchildren, or did this only work the one way, with Thelma leaving at least $425,000 to her sister's grandchild?

Anonymous wrote:The possibility is that Larla's grandmother influenced Thelma to leave the largest part of the estate to Larla. Larla was not there in the lawyer's office, her grandmother was. Larla's grandmother went to the lawyer's office with Thelma and when they left Larla was getting the Thelma's family home instead of Thelma's children.

This was already covered in the other thread. Thelma and Larla's grandmother were orphaned at 20 and 16 respectively. They remained close their entire lives. It seems Thelma had a distant relationship with her son Roy and she resented her daughter Mary for never leaving the nest despite plenty of support. Given the situation, is it odd that Thelma went with her sister to have the will written? Not really.

The possibility is that Larla's grandmother influenced Thelma to leave the largest part of the estate to Larla. Larla was not there in the lawyer's office, her grandmother was. Larla's grandmother went to the lawyer's office with Thelma and when they left Larla was getting the Thelma's family home instead of Thelma's children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larla should just wait and see and not negotiate anything unless a lawsuit is actually filed. Even then, her lawyer should advise her.

It sounds like Roy doesn't need the money. It's only Mary who possibly does, and she has to decide whether she wants to challenge the will and if Roy will be supportive, or if a lawsuit will be all on her. Mary also has to seriously consider that she may be unsuccessful and whether she will regret the legal bills if that's the outcome.

It's not about whether Mary or Roy needing the money. It's about righting a wrong if Thelma was influenced to write the will the will differently than she would have.

There is no evidence that Thelma was wrongly influenced. Mary would have to prove that. Larla does not need to give up so easily. Larla was only 19 or 20 when the will was written. It seems so unlikely that she was trying to influence her godmother at that time. Most young women are thinking about their friends, shopping, college classes, and boyfriends and don't yet have the life experience to be scheming on how to get a house from an older aunt, a person who up until the time of her death also seemed reasonably healthy and capable. It's not like Thelma was an advanced dementia patient and Larla was her full time caregiver, with an absentee family -- that would be a vulnerable person, subject to influence.

There is also such a thing as a no contest clause that can be put in a will, where if a person challenges the will, they forfeit what they would inherit. They all need to find out if Thelma's will has one of those. Mary has to decide whether contesting the will is worth it, because in the end, she could be left with far less than she has now.

NP here and this was my thought as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larla should just wait and see and not negotiate anything unless a lawsuit is actually filed. Even then, her lawyer should advise her.

It sounds like Roy doesn't need the money. It's only Mary who possibly does, and she has to decide whether she wants to challenge the will and if Roy will be supportive, or if a lawsuit will be all on her. Mary also has to seriously consider that she may be unsuccessful and whether she will regret the legal bills if that's the outcome.

It's not about whether Mary or Roy needing the money. It's about righting a wrong if Thelma was influenced to write the will the will differently than she would have.

There is no evidence that Thelma was wrongly influenced. Mary would have to prove that. Larla does not need to give up so easily. Larla was only 19 or 20 when the will was written. It seems so unlikely that she was trying to influence her godmother at that time. Most young women are thinking about their friends, shopping, college classes, and boyfriends and don't yet have the life experience to be scheming on how to get a house from an older aunt, a person who up until the time of her death also seemed reasonably healthy and capable. It's not like Thelma was an advanced dementia patient and Larla was her full time caregiver, with an absentee family -- that would be a vulnerable person, subject to influence.

There is also such a thing as a no contest clause that can be put in a will, where if a person challenges the will, they forfeit what they would inherit. They all need to find out if Thelma's will has one of those. Mary has to decide whether contesting the will is worth it, because in the end, she could be left with far less than she has now.

Anonymous wrote:Larla should just wait and see and not negotiate anything unless a lawsuit is actually filed. Even then, her lawyer should advise her.

It sounds like Roy doesn't need the money. It's only Mary who possibly does, and she has to decide whether she wants to challenge the will and if Roy will be supportive, or if a lawsuit will be all on her. Mary also has to seriously consider that she may be unsuccessful and whether she will regret the legal bills if that's the outcome.

It's not about whether Mary or Roy needing the money. It's about righting a wrong if Thelma was influenced to write the will the will differently than she would have.