Inheritance Dispute and Family Dynamics

So, my father passed a few months ago, and the thing is, he left everything to me.

His house, his investments, his business.

He didn't give anything to my sisters, who are estranged and with our mother ever since

my parents divorced, and my sisters have asked me to help pay their student loans because

my father left them with nothing.

How much was it?

Combined, I believe they went to both undergrad and grad, but combined it's about $300,000.

No, how much was the, yes, thank you for telling me that, but how much was the inheritance?

It's a couple million.

It's basically his house, his investments, and his business.

When you say a couple million, is that like two million, or is that like six million?

It's in the eight figures.

Okay.

So, we're talking 10 million plus.

Yes.

Okay.

Wow.

Okay.

So, he purposefully did not leave any money to your sisters because he had no relationship

with them, and that was his call to make.

Are they misbehaviors?

Basically, he didn't, no, they basically, he basically cut them off because they sided

with our mother during their divorce.

So, they're team mom, you're team dad, and he goes, hey, I'm going to leave it all to

my son who's been loyal to me.

Yes.

Okay.

And now, they're resentful because they feel like they deserve a portion of this money.

It seems like it, yes.

Okay.

I think this is more relational, emotional than it is financial.

You could write them a check and pay off the loans, but I don't know that you agree with

the principle behind it or that that would have been your father's heart.

Well, yeah.

What do you want to do?

What's your heart lean towards?

don't want to disrespect my father in any way. Okay. Do you have a relationship

with your sisters, or is it estranged as well? It's estranged. Okay. So they've only

come to me only for very unique cases, or like, or when they were going to college

or grad, they came to both my father and I for money. My father, I know, I was

there, and my father refused to pay for them, and that's why they have the debt to begin

with. So it's been transactional, this entire relationship. But can I ask, because here,

where I'm sitting, and you've given us, thank you for sharing what you've shared so far,

what I'm trying to weigh, and George, I don't know how you're looking at this either, but

I'm trying to weigh if this was a decision that was made out of dysfunction, which is

I'm forcing you to choose sides, and you guys are children, so you're choosing whatever,

I don't know, the parent you like the most that day, that sort of thing. And is this

your father having kind of just an immature moment, right? Or is this really a reason

that is with good reasoning behind it of, hey, I cut them off because they were misbehaving

in this way, and they made these poor choices? Or is it literally just simply, I don't like

your mother anymore, and they like her, you're dead to me?

So my mother had an affair, that's why they divorced. My sister said it with my mother

because they like the affair partner more. And I said it with my father because he was

my father.

Got you. Okay. So you can't see how they would stand by someone who would do such a thing,

basically?

Yes.

I understand. Okay.

I think you're going to be resentful if you give this money. And I'd rather them be resentful

towards you than you be resentful towards them.

Okay.

There's no easy answer here. They're going to hate you.