Reason 'Greedy' Woman Asked for Her Parents' Entire Inheritance Cheered

A woman has been supported online after sharing that she'd boldly asked for her parents' full inheritance, in return for looking after her disabled sister.

In a now-viral Reddit post, the 23-year-old woman revealed that she'd been told from childhood that if in the unfortunate circumstance that anything happens to her parents, she will become her sister's legal guardian. The Redditor, @Illustrious_Fig5484, wrote that her 33-year-old sister has disabilities (unspecified) and that while she has two older brothers, she was told she'd be the best-suited sibling to take on the care of her sister.

"She is currently living in a group home. The government pays for a good portion of the cost but not all of it. My parents have made sure that they have accessed every resource available for her to make sure she has as good a life as she can," the woman wrote.

"When we [the family] went to dinner I brought it up and said that I had three ideas. They make all three of us her guardians so that we could split the responsibilities and duties. They leave their entire estate to my sister in a trust that will oversee her care. They leave me their entire estate so that I become her sole guardian and take full responsibility."

The woman added that she had felt confident that her method of dividing things up was "fair," but that her family argued she was "trying to shrink her responsibility." Her brothers labeled her "greedy," and her parents became upset.

Unsure whether she was in the wrong for raising her idea or not, the Redditor called upon the internet to assess the situation.

"I asked [my brothers] if they wanted 100% responsibility for our sister in return for the entire estate. I volunteered to sign away everything to them. Neither one took me up on the offer," she noted.

Since the post was shared to the AITA (Am I The A******) subreddit on February 21, it has received over 3,000 comments with most users backing the original poster for her plan.

"Yeah it's super telling that both brothers had nothing to say when OP basically called them on their crap. It's good that she's being rational and not letting her family members guilt her into getting their way," one user commented.

Another Redditor, who said that they're an attorney, wrote: "Everything goes into a third party special needs trust for the disabled child. Anything remaining after the disabled child dies gets split 3 ways. In the U.S., a guardian has to arrange for the care of an individual but does not have to provide it or use their own funds.

"A court will not impose a guardianship on an unwilling person. The sister's care cannot be legally imposed upon the OP without her consent or her taking some affirmative step to become responsible."

How Does an Inheritance Get Divided Between Siblings?

Daniel J. Siegel, a legal secretary at American Bar Association's law practice division told Newsweek: "The right to inherit will depend upon whether the parents have wills. In many states, if a parent writes a will, the parent has no obligation to leave anything to his or her children. Conversely, many states prohibit one spouse from disinheriting the other spouse, even if the will says to do so.

"This is called the right of spousal election. As for children, if the parents do not have a will, then who inherits an estate is determined by state law, and in some instances, children are entitled to inherit from a deceased parent," he said.

Attorney Derek Jacques of The Mitten Law Firm in Michigan seconded Siegel, explaining that estates are not necessarily handled in a typical way and that cases vary and depend upon outstanding circumstances.

"The most common way is that assets are divided equally among children or siblings. There are, of course, times when this will not be the case," Jacques told Newsweek.

"You would need to see the will and other estate planning documents to know what you stand to inherit or are entitled to. With respect to the woman that wants to inherit her parents' entire estate, simply being the guardian of a sibling does not entitle someone to inherit their portion of an estate," he said.

Joan Burda, an associate professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, told Newsweek that bar a few exceptions, Louisiana being one of them, children are not "entitled" to inherit from their parents.

"Parents may disinherit their children for any or no reason. If a parent dies without a will (known as intestacy), however, every state has a statute that provides for the distribution of an estate. The usual lineup is: surviving spouse, children, parents, siblings, and down the line. These statutes will only apply if the decedent either did not have a valid will or if some provisions of the will were unenforceable," Burda explained.

"Children do not determine how much of their parents' estates they can inherit. The parents control the distribution of their respective estates. In this scenario, the woman may 'want' to inherit her parents' entire estate but it is up to the parents to determine if that is what they want," she said.

"The fact the daughter is the sister's guardian is irrelevant concerning inheritance. As the guardian, the daughter might control her sister's estate but any distribution (paying bills, spending assets) would be subject to court supervision."

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