Family is core to every individual. Your family keeps you going in the face of anything and everything. As the saying goes; Blood is thicker than water right?
So at the end of the day, when you’ve worked hard and invested a lot of effort and sleepless nights building a sizeable estate, it does makes sense to want to transfer these assets to your loved ones with no hassles.
While there are legal tools like Wills, Revocable Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts and Foundations to ensure that you seamlessly transfer your estate into the right hands, the issue of inheritance conflict cannot still be waved off.
No matter what the issues might be, family is still arguably one’s most enduring and valuable asset. This emphasizes the need to make deliberate efforts to unite your family while you can by properly structuring the transfer of your assets.
Here is a case study that covers the case of an inheritance conflict:
Stanley 44, and his mother are locked in battle over the sale of one of the family’s houses. The building, a semi-detached duplex located in FESTAC, Lagos State, was allegedly sold in 2013 while Stanley was still living there with his wife and two children. It was learnt that Stanley’s mother allegedly sold the house for N27m. Another property was subsequently purchased at the Satellite Town area in the name of his younger brother who lives outside the country.
According to Stanley, “Early that year, I was approached by two buyers who claimed that the house was for sale. At the time, my mother was away outside the country. When the rumour persisted, I obtained a Caveat on the house from the Ikeja High Court. “But when my mother returned a few weeks after, she said she had indeed put the house up for sale. I objected to this because this was the only property that my late father had (left) in Lagos.”
A few weeks later, the son said his mother’s lawyer, came to the house with some documents showing that he had agreed to the sale. “As joint administrator with my mother for our father’s Estate, I believed my permission was also needed on anything that was to happen to the Estate”. Stanley was subsequently arrested by the Area E Command, FESTAC, as his mother had written a petition alleging threat to her life.
But it didn’t end there. Listen to the #LegacySeries show to learn how it all ended and if there was a better way in which this could have been handled.
The #LegacySeries show airs every Monday at 7PM on Classic FM 97.3 and is brought to you by FBN Trustees Limited.
