The Expert Podcast

So, what is inheritance hijacking? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. If you have somebody in your life that's close to you, maybe a relative who has become deceased or even if they're not deceased, maybe they're in extended care or in hospice or, you know, some type of retirement home. If you are entitled to assets from that person based on their will, their directives, their wishes, many times you're going to find that other people around that person—maybe your own relatives—are going to do things to try to take some of that inheritance from you.

They may feel like they're more deserving than you. They may feel like maybe you're better off than they are, so they don't think you should have that much money. Maybe they're just thieves and they just want to take the money. A lot of times, people are influenced by those around them. Maybe their spouse says, "Look, take more money than you deserve." Maybe they're just greedy. We see thousands and thousands of inheritance theft cases every single month when somebody has assets and they're from an older generation and they're moving on—they're becoming deceased, they're retiring, or maybe they're in long-term care.

Those assets are directed to go to somebody else. It may be their children, maybe their grandchildren, it might be a charity, right? It might be some directed recipient, but sometimes people can't let it go. There's people in and around that family that say, "Look, I know there's this money. I know there's these assets—real estate, corporate assets, vehicles. I want to get me some of that." And they will do things that are very, very backstabbing. They'll sign over titles to vehicles. They'll forge deeds on properties. They'll write checks from bank accounts. They'll embezzle money.

And you may not think it would happen to you, but we see so many times where a client will come to us and say, "Look, I think maybe there's something going on. Can you run an asset search?" We do an asset search, and we find that a lot of assets have been improperly transferred. They've been squandered to the wrong people.

Now, remember, a will—when somebody dies, they have a will—is not just the name of a piece of paper. A will is somebody's wishes. It's what they wanted to have happen when they die. According to the dictionary, "will" means a person's wishes—it’s what they expect to happen. It's what they're directing to happen. That's what the word "will" means. So, if you let somebody else steal money from your deceased relative, or even not a relative, you're disrespecting their wishes. You're disrespecting what they wanted to have happen.

Look, if you want somebody else to have more money than you from an inheritance, that's fine. You can give it to them, but don't let them take it. Have the money distributed the way that that person wanted it to be, per their will and their wishes, and then give some to the other person. Also, if you let somebody else steal it, it sets a precedent where they can mistreat you—and you probably don't want that to happen.

So, inheritance hijacking is a process where somebody will improperly transfer money that doesn't belong to them. It's very common. They think they're doing it on the sly. They think they're doing it secretly. It may be invisible to you, but an investigation can uncover these actions. They can uncover the steps that they took to try to conceal it and find out how much they took, where they put it, and then you can make them put it back to where it's supposed to go—maybe to you, maybe to somebody else, maybe to a charity—but at least the wrong people aren't going to get it, and you're not disrespecting the last wishes of the person who worked hard to make all that money throughout their life.

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