My Mother is 73 and has Parkinson's Disease (diagnosed when she was only 62) and her husband of over 20 years has early stage Alzheimers. Recently my brother was put in charge of their finances and we found an old will of her husbands. In 1994 he had a will made up that half of his cash/stocks would go to his grandchildren and half to my Mom upon his passing. However, they've become much wealthier due to investments and properties they've purchased since that time and now my Mom stands to lose half of that - over $800k to his grandchildren. I'm concerned about her long term care and since he is almost 90 and not doing well, I'm afraid we've all waited too long to help her. Since in his will it only states they have claim to half of his cash, is it legally wrong to buy additional real estate with some of the money they have in stocks and bonds in order to protect that money so my Mom can be taken care of? I am not against them getting something when he dies but I don't think it should be at the expense of my Mom's health and care being compromised. My brother is very conservative and doesn't want to move any of the money. Her husbands family doesn't even call or visit him and hasn't for years - he has one son who doesn't even know anything about the wealth they've accrued. I've also heard that the skipped generation tax is going to take a significant amount of this inheritance anyway. I really would like to protect more of this money if at all possible. How much do we have to be careful of from a legal standpoint?
There may even be a newer will. If you can find the attorney who he worked with, that would help a lot. Either way, you'll need legal help to do anything.
Carol