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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShe needed a will. A lawyer named himself the main heir to her $1.7 million estate.
Friends remembered Wilma Williams as fiercely independent, but a stroke left her in a wheelchair and reliant on hearing aides as large as headphones the day her attorney arrived with a plan to divvy up her $1.7 million estate.
The 93-year-old military widow with no children had nieces and nephews, but Bob Machen personally drafted a will that made himself her primary beneficiary and his son a man she had never met a possible heir as well.
Machen said the will represented the wishes of a woman who was like a sister to him and who he helped for years. He claims he watched as she affixed a scribbled signature to the document in a Fairfax County rehabilitation center on July 31, 2018.
Williams died 10 days later, and her relatives said they were stunned to eventually learn that Machen was poised to reap a $1.5 million windfall while they would receive modest bequests. They couldnt believe the will truly represented Williamss desires and decided to challenge it in court.
They say the case is a particularly brazen example of the financial exploitation of the elderly, a problem that is rapidly increasing as the senior population grows. The number of people aged 65 and older is projected to double between 2018 and 2060, according to government figures. Various estimates put their losses from fraud between $2.9 billion and a staggering $36.5 billion each year.
Wilma Williams fits the profile of a prototypical target. A MetLife study reports that twice as many elderly women are taken advantage of as men and that most victims live alone, like Williams did. Her case is likely to be a preview of many to come.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/she-needed-a-will-a-lawyer-named-himself-the-main-heir-to-her-dollar17-million-estate/ar-BB13ydho?ocid=NL_ENUS_D1_20200504_8_2
malaise
(269,219 posts)The same old societal parasites
jimfields33
(16,015 posts)Once in a nursing home, will can never be changed. The lawyers MUST notify the executor of the previous will any changes. Possible tell the previous heirs they were taken out of the will so they can really ask mom, grandma, or whoever was taken out, so intentions can be guaranteed. So many ways to stop this.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)need to make wills a fuck of a lot sooner than after they're in their nineties and have had a stroke.
Heck, a lot of people should be making their first will once they turn 21, and update it as needed. I've now had four different wills during my lifetime (I'm 71) although the first one wasn't until I was 40 or so. Life changes, including a divorce and a death triggered the most recent two.
Hey! All of you! Make a will. Do it now, or no later than next week.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)just by having already done your will, if you become incapacitated and have an unscrupulous lawyer.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)One thing I've done is to make sure that several extra people have either copies of my will or pertinent information. I can only hope that if I become incapacitated there will be people to look out for me and make sure some unscrupulous lawyer doesn't take over.
While I have assets considerably less than $1.5 million, a greedy person might still want them.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)because while her father was in the hospital during his final, months-long illness, he met a nurse who married him.
So there's another possibility!
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)Of course, if the dad had a will in place already, and if he didn't update it after the marriage, the nurse wouldn't have gotten anything other than if the state they lived in required that spouses get something. Not all states do.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)But the court did toss the whole thing out, so the children received the inheritance their parents had originally intended.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)But very glad to know that the court tossed it out and the kids got their inheritance. Sometimes good prevails.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)If not it damn well should be.
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)battling over the updated will he initialed. The daughter (50s) has since passed away, but the fight continues.
Jersey Devil
(9,875 posts)I have no idea why this isn't the law nationwide.