Chapter 3

Arriving at the Horgan’s house Joni could see that it was not on the lake but was located on the other side of the road which ran alongside the lake. It was an older two story home which had a large backyard. There were people already there to include a number of kids wearing their swimsuits. Ted told her that across from the house was a path going down to lake for those who wanted to take a dip and it looked like a number of kids were planning on doing that.

Tony and Carol warmly greeted Ted and Joni and introduced them to the guests that were already there. While the children were active in throwing a Frisbee or doing some other activity the adults for the most either watched Tony doing the cooking or sat at the tree shaded picnic tables had a drink and kibitzed. This was the fifth time Ted had attended this July 4th weekend function but it was the first time he had come there with a woman which made the guests curious.

The adults were interested in finding out more about Joni and somewhat subtly peppered her with questions. That she was an attorney only increased their curiosity and they asked her if she had any interesting stories she could share.

After thinking about it for a little while she said, “When I graduated law school and passed the bar I went to work at my Dad’s law firm. I was given the primary duties of handling divorces and doing estate planning which was fine as those practices of law interested me. After about a year in doing it Dad referred one of his clients to me who wanted to do estate planning. Let’s call him Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was seventy two years old and a widower. He was also quite wealthy because of some inventions and patents he had sold. His estate had a value of a little north of twenty million dollars.”

“He told me he had met a lady from Poland that he wanted to marry but he wasn’t sure if she loved him or loved his money. He wanted me to draw up a pre-nup which I did. It was a generous pre-nup that stated she would receive twenty five thousand a year for every year they were married and after ten years or when Mr. Smith died, which ever came first, she would receive one million dollars. Oh, I should mention that while Mr. Smith was seventy two this lady was thirty two years of age. The age difference caused me raise an eyebrow but I didn’t say anything. There was no hesitancy on her part in signing the pre-nup.”

“About four years later Mr. Smith who was now married came to me again and wanted the pre-nup torn up and a new will and trust agreement drawn up which gave the great majority of his estate to his wife with only one hundred K going to each of his two sons and some other minor bequests. He told me the only time he sees his sons and their families now is when they come to him with their hands out. They don’t care for his wife and have made disparaging remarks about her calling her a gold-digger. They no longer invite him over for the holidays because they don’t want anything to do with his wife. Further he said he wanted these changes in his will to be iron clad because his sons will be egged on by their wives to try and break this new will. He wanted me to be the executor of the will along with being the successor trustee and stipulated a generous fee for me to do that.”

“To me Mr. Smith was a changed and happy man. His wife seemed like a nice person and in my opinion they had a happy marriage in spite of their age difference. The changes were made and unfortunately Mr. Smith passed away about five years later. As he predicted his sons engaged the services of attorneys in an attempt to break the terms of the will. The now widow wife showed me the letters she received from these attorneys advising her of this intent.”

“I called a meeting at my office of all the interested parties to include the wife to discuss the matter. Right at the start they said each son wanted one half of the estate but to be fair they would settle for one third each. It caught them all with their pants down when I showed them a video tape made by Mr. Smith on the day he signed the current will and trust. On the video he explained why he was making these changes and leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife. He pulled no punches in telling of his disappointment with his sons and their families in how they treated him and his new wife. He mentioned the only time he saw them is when they wanted some money and if they were foolish enough to try and break this will they will forfeit the one hundred K.”