I’M BEING CHEATED OUT OF MUM’S LEGACY

THIS is a horrible situation and I understand why you’re upset. Wills have always caused trouble and your mother should certainly have ensured you and your siblings were written into her will.

But of course, she trusted her husband, just as you did. People and circumstances change, so wills do need to be kept up to date — all readers please note.

Of course money matters, (a) because of the help it can give the present and next generations, and (b) because of its symbolic value.

You touch on this when you mention ‘all that she put into the marriage’. You feel your mother’s whole life-legacy of hard work and love for the family is being betrayed. You say you intend to take legal advice and that’s sensible; only a solicitor can advise you. What you have to deal with in the meantime is your hurt.

I’d like to know the circumstances in which your stepdad spoke to you recently about the will. Was it on the phone? How did the subject come up? It would surely be a good thing for you to visit him as soon as possible and show you are visibly upset.

Let him know how much you love him and how hurt you are that he is considering abandoning you in this way. Explain that you think of this in terms of his affection for you.

Do you have any relationship with his daughter? Might you talk to her? Going way back in time, if it was he who ended his first marriage (perhaps because he’d met your mother?) it could be that he has been feeling guilty ever since. Why else would he make a will so blatantly unfair?

You will have to hear him out. wish you the best of luck.