His sister is accusing me of abandoning my dad – meanwhile, she’s pocketing his life savings. Where do I turn?

One of the worst things that can happen with any death in the family isn’t necessarily the grief, but the immediate drama that follows whenever money is involved. No matter the size of an inheritance, money often brings out the very worst qualities of even the closest family members. 

For this Redditor posting in r/InheritanceDrama, there is a pretty awful situation she is now facing after her stepfather’s recent passing. It’s not an unsurprising situation where a new family member enters the story and all of a sudden the money conversations change entirely. 

An Awful Situation 

Unfortunately, whenever money is involved after a death, not only are there heightened emotions, but it’s just a headache nobody wants to deal with. This feels very personal to this Redditor, who had tried to step up as the only surviving family member to help her stepfather with his financial well-being. Whether it was out of a sense of guilt or responsibility, it would have been great for the stepfather to lean on when he needed to talk through big expenses like fixing a pool or a leaky roof. 

Everything changed overnight when the stepfather’s 83-year-old sister suddenly decided she was going to start living with him. Calling herself a support person for him, the Redditor is just now learning that she also took control of her brother’s finances while she was living with him. This means that she had complete access to his bank accounts, Social Security checks, and just about everything else that had a dollar value attached. 

Apparently, the stepfather had around $65,000 in his bank account and a $40,000 annuity, which are now gone. Complicating this situation even more, the sister now claims that her brother wanted to create a new will before his death. It’s safe to say that any such will would have made the sister the beneficiary of anything he had left. 

Where To Go From Here

If a new will was created, the good news for the Redditor is that it would likely mean that the original will was destroyed. Assuming the Redditor has a copy of the original will, she can piece together any last wishes her stepfather may have had. 

If she is indeed the co-owner or beneficiary of his financial accounts, any remaining funds will become hers. The same applies to the life insurance, which the sister has already indicated hasn’t been changed, but there is no reason to believe she won’t try anyway. 

Ultimately, there is a strong likelihood the Redditor will end up in probate court and require the services of a lawyer. The good thing is that if the sister does indeed plan to file for probate in an attempt to obtain whatever money is left over, she must file the will with the county. This is a public document at this point, so anything she might be trying to hide now will become public either way. 

Still, if the Redditor wants to protect her father’s wishes and prevent her stepaunt from causing any further harm, she needs a lawyer yesterday. 

There is no question that this is a disappointing situation all around, but the likelihood of resolving this between two family members has passed. There is every reason to believe that the only way this situation will be resolved is through legal means. The Redditor needs to know if the sister has essentially looted her brother’s account, and if so, she is going to need to try to claw this money back.