Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Ohio
WIll/Beneficary Confusion
Hello,
My grandfather stated in his ''Last Will and Testament'' that he wanted to; ''give, devise and bequeath all of my estate, whether real, personal or mixed, of every kind, nature and description wherever situated, which I may own or hereafter acquire or have the right to dispose of at the time of my decease'' to his 2 daughters 50% (25% each) and 50% to his 3 grandchildren (16.6667% each).
We all read and agreed to this will until my aunt found out that on one of his major assets (an investment acct), only she and my mother were named as beneficiaries (50/50) with no mention of the grandchildren.
My question is, does the named beneficiary designation on this account supercede the will and basically leave the grandchildren with no legal rights to claim any of this asset?
It was well known by all parties of my grandfathers intention to split ALL of his assets according to his will, but I doubt that comes into play now and just wanted to verify.
Thanks for your time and any help you can provide.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: WIll/Beneficary Confusion
When someone sets up an account naming transfer on death beneficiaries that controls over the will. This is an often confusing part of the law and many people do not realize that by doing this their Will does not control.
Unfortunately based on the facts that you provided the asset ownership designation will prevail and that asset will not go through his will.
You might have a case if you can show that your grandfather was confused (not able to understand what he was doing) or was under pressure to change the account that way but that would probably be hard to prove and would require litigation unless you can get your mother and aunt to agree to distribute part of the account to the grandchildren.
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