TheBanyanTree: More and more complications

[PJMoney]

Miserable will! I go to sleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about
it.  I can't put it to bed.

I thought it might say something like, "I leave all my earthly goods to my
son," and then we'd have to find out what the earthly goods were, figure out
whether they were worth getting valued and, if so, get them valued, pay the
inheritance tax and then decide whether to sell them or not.  That is, I
thought there would be considerable nuisance involved but also a small
possibility of getting some money out of it for my son.  He needs it.  

But the will was much more of a kicker than that.  That man left everything
to his girlfriend to use for the rest of her life.  

OK.  He'd been with her since at least early 2001.  (Amazing what you can
find out on the internet.)  But before that he'd been married to, and
divorced from, another woman, with whom he had no children.  In 1995, if
what his brother told me is true, he was still married to that woman.  So
his relationship with the girlfriend lasted at least 9 years but not more
than about 13 or 14 years.  Of course, many marriages don't last that long,
but compared to the 37 years during which he ignored his son's existence,
it's not much.

But we're understanding people.  We don't object to his leaving provision
for the woman for whom he cared and who, in all probability, cared for him
through his final illness.  No.  The big problem is that, contrary to normal
practice, he expressly excused her from having to make an inventory of the
goods or from having to provide any security, like insurance, for them.  By
the time she dies there could be nothing left.  And given that I only found
out about Jorge's death by accident, even if there is something left the
chance that Christian will be informed of this woman's death is remote at
best.

To me, the will sounds as though it was written in an attempt to appear to
comply with the law of obligatory heirs while actually disinheriting his
only son.  However, under Spanish law obligatory heirs can only be
disinherited for specific causes, such as having attempted to murder the
testator. So I got in touch with a Spanish lawyer who said Christian could
apply for a court order to have the goods inventoried and valued (how else
can the inheritance tax be calculated?) but that he couldn't contest the
will through the Spanish courts because the deceased was a Chilean national
and therefore Chilean law applies.

So now I have to find out if the will complies with Chilean law and, if not,
find out how to manage all the cross-jurisdictional issues.  It's a good
thing, or maybe it's a curse, that I don't give up easily.

For Christian this whole mess is just another cause for sadness.  After the
will arrived he came over to have a look at it.  When he understood its
provisions he left saying, "Not a book, not a key, not a kind word." 

Janice