Attwood Marshall Lawyers’ Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett was featured in the Daily Mail Australia, sharing his expertise in Wills and estate planning.
Jeff spoke to reporter, Bek Day about the phenomenon of ‘inheritance ransom,’ where adult children are choosing to maintain relationships with abusive or difficult parents they would otherwise be estranged from purely because they need the inheritance.
Jeff said,
“I’m astounded by the sense of entitlement of adult children and grandchildren with their elderly, wealthy parents.
They are stepping in well before their parents die and attempting to take control of assets, including having assets or cash transferred to them, quite often to the detriment of the parents and their siblings.
Watching them, they all become crazed, like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, trying to get his ring back.”
Jeff told Daily Mail Australia he encounters a lot of Millennial and Gen X adult children whose expectations of a large inheritance play a major role in their financial planning, and who, in some cases, try to use their relationship with their parents as a bargaining chip.
“We often get elderly clients who come in to do their estate planning, and you’ve almost got to prod it out of them because they’re so embarrassed that it’s going on.
They’ll come in with their adult children and then come back to us secretly, saying that they want to cut them out of the will, or that they’re harassing them to transfer assets.”
To read Jeff’s interview in full with Daily Mail Australia, click here.
