Preparing a will can be quite troubling, there are people that you are expected to include and maybe an expectation of how much you are meant to leave to each person.
The idea behind a will is that nobody is left squabbling over who gets what, but the irony of it all is that it’s your last real chance to let people know how you feel.
This grandfather appeared to do this exactly, leaving his five grandchildren just £50 each of his fortune worth a whopping £500,000.
Former British soldier Frederick Ward Sr had his family arguing over his assets following his death in 2020, as his son Terry Ward and daughter Susan Wiltshire were left the majority of his fortune, leaving virtually nothing to the kids of deceased eldest son Fred Jr.
Champion News
At the time, the 91-year-old informed lawyers that he was hurt that his grandchildren didn’t visit him on any of the three occasions that he was in hospital with a lung condition.
But the mother of the five grandchildren, Ann Ward, has seemingly addressed the matter for the first time.
A close family source has spoken to the MailOnline, saying: “Ann is very clear. If her late husband was still alive he would have been absolutely fuming that his daughters had been disinherited like this.
“He would be turning in his grave.
“She has no doubts whatsoever about that.”
The source also claimed that it wasn’t about the money, as the women were only fighting for what their deceased father would have wanted and what they were initially promised.
They continued: “There are a lot of serious questions to be asked about the judge’s ruling.
“Ann believes some key evidence appears not to have been fully taken into account.”
The source also claimed that the sisters ‘can’t afford’ to appeal as they are paying both sides’ legal costs.
Champion News
Despite taking it to court, High Court judge Master James Brightwell ultimately ruled that the will, which was written in 2018, was based on rational grounds.
These grounds were that they had limited contact with their grandfather in his final years.
He remarked: “Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator’s child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child’s issue.
“However, the decision not to do so and to split the residue and thus the bulk of the estate between his surviving children can hardly be said to be provision which no reasonable testator could make.”
After the sisters claimed that their aunt and uncle had ‘unduly influenced’ their shares of the fortune being removed, a recording of Ward’s will reading was played to court in which a row between the family could be heard.
Master Brightwell concluded: “In those circumstances, and despite a promise by Fred several years earlier to divide his estate between his children’s children if anything should happen to any of them, the 2018 will was in my view entirely rational.
“This does not mean that I cannot understand the claimants’ disappointment at being essentially left out.”