Rich Old Lady Left Nearly $1.3M Estate – Her Son Gets Nothing & Demands Money from Heir

After the woman's grandma died, her will was declared along with the conditions the heirs had to fulfill to get their shares. However, an unexpected drama sparked when one of the heirs turned 21.

While ancestral inheritance could establish a stable future for some heirs, the will Redditor inheritance-throw's grandma left set fire to her relationship with her family.

The 20-year-old woman sought third-party opinion on Reddit's "AITA" sub to determine if she was wrong for respecting her grandma's dying wish and fulfilling the conditions mentioned in her will.

The Original Poster (OP) had a splendid life growing up as an only child. She went to a private school and holidayed at least once abroad. But that didn't mean she always got what she wanted from her parents, who worked higher-paying jobs.

While it could've been a smooth deal, things played out against OP after her uncle and cousins thought it was unfair and teamed up against her.

When OP was 17, she got her car after her parents refused to get her one. It was one among several instances where they constantly turned down certain things she'd asked them. So OP was not always their "golden child."

But OP's uncle viewed it differently and felt she was her parents' pampered kid. His perspectives eventually passed on to his children, "Connor" and "Olivia," who thought their cousin, OP, always got more than them. So nobody was pleased with what she got in her inheritance.

OP's paternal grandmother died when OP was three, leaving a will that stated how much her two sons and their kids would inherit. As it turned out, the woman left assets such as property, jewelry, art collection, and investment portfolio to her two sons.

The grandma wanted her grandchildren to inherit something nice too and planned their shares thoughtfully. So she left all the money she'd saved in various bank accounts to her grandchildren but with a few conditions.

In her will, she stated that half her money be divided equally between one son's children and the other half between the other son's kids when they turned 21.

Since OP didn't have any siblings, she inherited a larger chunk of money than her cousins. While it could've been a smooth deal, things played out against OP after her uncle and cousins thought it was unfair and teamed up against her.

When Connor turned 21, OP's uncle insisted her parents downsize her 50% share so that she and her cousins all got an equal share of 33%. But OP's parents refused and told him that only their daughter had the sole authority to decide the fate of the money.

That didn't stop OP's uncle and her cousins from bringing it up again. It was close to Olivia's 21st birthday when they roped in members of their extended family against OP. They blew up her phone and email, saying she was being "selfish" to get a larger share than her cousins.

OP's uncle and those who sided with him against her reasoned that she always got everything she wanted due to her parents' wealthy status. However, OP stood her ground and claimed it wasn't her fault that her parents didn't have more children to downsize her inheritance.

OP planned to save her inheritance in a Lifetime Individual Savings Account and use some of it for vacationing and a trip to New York with her friends on her 21st birthday. She asked Redditors if she was right for not wanting to share a dime from her legacy with her cousins.

People online believed OP wasn't at fault, while some counter questioned if her cousins would've split their money if she had three or four siblings. The post's top-voted commenter Walktothebrook stated:

"Your uncle and cousin are being entitled. Your grandmother divided her assets as she wished, and no one has the right to question it."

"If your grandmother had wanted all cousins to have the same amount, she could have stipulated that in her will...Your inheritance is yours. Do NOT let them bully you into giving them your money," Redditor Briarrose1021 asserted.

As the discussion magnified, some people were stunned by the math in OP's case. For instance, user crella-ann questioned: "They each want 33% of your share? How did they come up with that figure?"

OP clarified that her uncle and cousins didn't want her to give up 33% of her money but wanted her to decrease her 50% inheritance to an equal share.

"What they want is for me to give up 17% so they each will get an additional 8.5%, so we all end up with 33% of the total," she explained.

In the end, OP fixed her mind to respect her grandma's wishes. "Also, Connor and Olivia's share is still a lot of money each, it's more than most people inherit and more money than most people have access to in their early 20s," she concluded.

Questions to Ponder:

If tables were turned, do you think OP's cousins would agree to downsize their inheritance the way they're asking OP to?

Some online wondered if OP's cousins would be ready to reduce their inheritance and give a part of their money to OP's siblings if she had more siblings than them, guessing it was unlikely to happen. What would you do if your cousins expect you to sacrifice a considerable amount from your inheritance so that all of you inherit equally?

Do you think it was OP's responsibility to make up for the money Connor blew up from his inheritance?

OP claimed Connor had spent most of his inheritance on partying, vacations, and cars. She also asserted that it was not her problem to make up for the money he wasted. Do you think OP would give in to her family's pressure and surrender a part of her inheritance to her cousins? Should she?

If you liked reading this story, here's one about how parents who disowned their daughter years ago demanded her to surrender her inheritance to her brother.

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