This bugs me

[eliyes]

Is it actually legal to stipulate in your Will that someone only gets their inheritence if they get married? Because that trope is fucking everywhere in fanfic, but it doesn't seem legal...

Comments

[kalloway]

I'm fairly sure it's something that could be contested in front of a judge (and won fairly easily, depending on the judge), but is 'legal' to put in.

'Must live in [X] for [Y] years' seems to be a fairly common one too and must have spawned from somewhere.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

I've seen stuff like 'must do [A] with inherited building/company [B] for [C] length of time, or else [B] defaults to [S]', and 'money will be held in trust (to be overseen by [X]) until recipient reaches majority/other arbitary age/finishes [Z] amount of schooling', but that's not the same, really...

[kalloway]

*nods* Yeah, seen all of those, too. Those might actually be harder to contest than a marriage clause, actually. I don't think anyone could stop someone from putting them in, though.

I have to go to work, but LegalZoom is a great website for all sorts of Will stuff.
http://www.legalzoom.com/lawsuits-settlements/inheritance-cases/top-ten-strangest-will

Which reminds me that I really need to make my own Will at some point soonish, because hey, one never knows.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Probably because they sound reasonable.

Ah! Thanks, I was looking for this sort of site but Google and I seemed to be having a failure to communicate.

I need to redo mine, it's obsolete.

[taichara]

There's also the question of where is it legal.

After all, not all fics are in the same nation or the same time or even the same universe -- something too many ficcers are apparently too stunned to remember.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

No, true, but it's usually stuff set in a fic universe of our modern world, and I've seen it for the USA, Canada, and the UK. :/ And Japan-as-written-by-Americans-so-thus-actually-USA-again.

[timemonkey.livejournal.com]

Why wouldn't it be? It's your stuff, if the person wants it they meet the conditions you set, if not then they don't get it.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Mainly because it's weird.

Hey, you can't take it with you. Once you're dead, it's not your stuff any more.

[ladymoondancer.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's legal to write a will that says "X only gets the money if he/she marries."

But I guess the person could also be like, "I'm not writing you into my will until you marry." (Of course this depends on the person writing the will staying alive in the fanfic.)

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

That... actually makes more sense to me. People do crap like that. But the trope of "I can't inherit unless I get married wtf!" (and often "Screw that, I don't need the money! You don't control me!" *plot thing happens that requires the money, like a children's hospital catching on fire, etc.* or else a marriage of convenience is arranged... generally with a membe rof the same sex, so only the ones that don't take place in the USA make sense to me for this, which means it's real popular for the McShep shippers in SGA fandom, since McKay is Canadian) is the one I keep encountering.