“Inheritance brings out the worst in people,” Ben Reach often reminded his friend Sam Nixon M.D. when the old friends discussed the inevitable deaths of their shared patrons (Ben’s clients, Sam’s patients). A prime example occurred when Minnie Blanton asked the curmudgeons to meet with her jointly about a change she wanted to make in her will.
Minnie was the widow of Buck Blanton, long time manager of Tall Pines Plantation, a showplace quail plantation just south of Thomasville. When Buck retired the plantation’s owner rewarded his long service by giving him a modest house and ten-acre curtilage on the edge of Tall Pines, subject to a buy-back option if Buck or a successor in his family ever wanted to sell it. Buck had left it to Minnie.
Minnie was financially comfortable but far from wealthy. She had long had an estate plan leaving whatever she had left equally to her three children. When Ben and Sam met with her she explained the change in this plan she was contemplating.
“As you know, my daughter Ann now lives with me and takes care of me.”
(Ann had undergone a bad divorce from a rascal husband a decade earlier. She had a sixteen-year-old daughter who also lived with Minnie and kept two riding horses — she was a talented equestrian and hoped to be a veterinarian).
“Ann has given up a lot to make it possible for me to stay in my home and I want to leave her the home place in addition to a third of whatever else I have left, but I am concerned my other children might contest my plan. I know they won’t like it,” Minnie said.
Ben and Sam looked at one another. They had dealt with this problem before.
“Minnie, let us confer about this a bit and come back to you with a plan to accomplish what you want to do and maybe preserve family harmony. Can you come see us again a week from now,” Ben said, and Minnie agreed.
The curmudgeons had a game plan outlined in a half hour after Minnie departed. It was 4:30 pm and looking at his watch, Sam said, “Time for a libation.”
Ben reached in the desk drawer and withdrew a half filled fifth of The Macallan 12, two thick plastic short glasses, one embossed with a Georgia bulldog and one with a Harvard pilgrim, and an unopened split of club soda.
* * * * *
When Minnie died twelve years later, Ben was not surprised when Minnie’s two children other than Ann asked to meet with him privately to discuss their mother’s estate plan. They were surprised to find Sam seated in Ben’s library-conference room when they arrived to meet with Ben. Ben explained that their mother had asked that Sam be invited to the meeting which she had contemplated her children would request.
As Ben and Sam had expected, the children were angry. “Our mother was not competent when you changed her plan to leave the house to Ann,” son Frank said, his tone snarling.
Without a word in response, Sam pushed a button on a remote control on his hand-held beneath the tabletop and the large screen behind him lit up. On the screen appeared Minnie, Ben and Sam, twelve years younger, seated at the same table.
Minnie explained to Sam and Ben her plan to leave the home to Ann and why she thought it fair. Then she said,
Before I decided on this plan, I considered another. I considered selling the home and moving to Happy Acres Retirement Community and using the proceeds of selling the home for the entrance fee. I found that what I would get for the home would cover it and leave $50,000 for monthly fees for the first year. I didn’t like the idea of being at Happy Acres. In fact I think its name is a fraud.”
Ben handed a one-page memo to each of the children. On it were calculations showing what Minnie would have paid Happy Acres over the last twelve years had she moved there.
“If your mother has moved to Happy Acres you would each have inherited $300,000 less,” Ben said.
Then Sam handed each of them a copy of a letter from a Neurologist dated twelve years earlier and addressed to Minnie. At the bottom it read, “As you requested, I am sending a copy of this report to Sam Nixon, MD and Ben Reach, Esq.”
The letter contained a report on an examination of Minnie’s cognitive skills declaring her unimpaired.
Ben and Sam walked Minnie’s children to the front door of Ben’s offices and bid them good day, then returned to the library-conference room for a celebratory libation.