Jeanne (a fictitious name because she wants to remain anonymous) still feels a pang in her heart when she thinks back to the family home that she would rather have inherited at 23 than see her ex-partner living there. Mother, wealthy and immediately reunited after death.
• Also read: She still manages the estate of her husband, who died 13 years ago
“Ill, my mother changed her will a year before she died. I never knew if it was his decision or if it was whispered in his ear. Was it normal to put the new wife above her child, regardless of wealth? » asks Jeanne.
The young woman inherited her mother’s cottage and a life insurance policy worth $50,000. The spouse, with whom the mother had been happy for several years, received the house, the RRSP and a lifetime spousal pension since the deceased was a civil servant.
After paying off her student debt with her inheritance, Jeanne didn’t have much money left to begin her adult life.
“I built on what my mother left me and I was lucky to have that, but even today I tell myself that this house was mine and that I would have loved to raise my children there,” she admits .
Jeanne believes that her mother, who was not very financially savvy, received poor advice when preparing her will.
“Wasn’t it more sensible to help the daughter just starting her life than the wealthy spouse? ” She asks.
Jeanne’s former father-in-law did not want to live in the house he inherited in the early years because he did not need it: he lived with a new flame. Jeanne therefore rented the house to him. She was about to buy it back after six years, but the heir kicked her out to go back and live there after she broke up with his new love. He now lives in the house with another new partner and has already announced that his daughter will be the heir to this house gifted by Jeanne’s mother!
“The wound is still there,” says Jeanne, now in her early forties. I lived for years on a small salary to worry about at the end of each month, all the while knowing he had a free house, an RRSP, and a retirement fund while I dragged the devil behind me by the tail. But at some point I decided to leave it behind. “I’m sure it’s not what my mother would have wanted for me,” says Jeanne.
Since she had become a mother herself in a live-in relationship, she made sure to plan a different future for her daughter. Helping the spouse with his share of the mortgage, yes, but all his last wishes were discussed with the notary, with the aim of supporting his daughter first.
“Let’s protect our children. New spouses may be super nice when we are with them, but we never know what will happen after death,” she concludes.
You have experienced a complicated inheritance story and would like to share it with us. Wirte