MrInheritance.com
Now collecting inheritance horror stories worldwide!
Send yours confidentially to stories@MrInheritance.com
Now collecting inheritance horror stories worldwide!
Send yours confidentially to stories@MrInheritance.com
Email me direct at richard@MrInheritance.com
I'm a retired London barrister (Middle Temple 1982-2009; changed surname from Astor to Szrabe in 2011).
Here you'll find some of my reflections and comments on juridical inheritance, and some inheritance horror stories I'm collecting. This site will take some time to fill up: I started it Jan 1, 2026.
Inheritance — especially the personal and professional wickedness that seems to infest so much of it, so much of the time — is one of my things.
Why not check out some of my other inheritance-related projects:-
MRRIGOROUS.pro: a relaxed consulting firm offering regular folks pro bono and realistic fixed-fee services on (among many other things) inheritance situations.
MHNA INHERITANCE CRIME CONSULTING, a.k.a. InheritanceCrime.com, a deadly serious consulting firm specialising in guess what. The site has a lot to say on this universal vice. I'm on the case.
ANATEXIS.MEDIA: various forthcoming books, multimedia and events including one project on inheritance crime and another on accounting and auditing in inheritance crime. I've got the subject covered. Check out the gofundme campaign.
THEINHERITANCECHANNEL.com: a global multimedia startup on inheritance holistically considered, including juridical inheritance, genetics, genealogy, culture and planet. The whole dang subject, dang it. Now if only I could raise around $250,000 to get it off the ground…
TERMINOLOGY
'probate' properly refers only to the process of proving a will. Of course Americans, being technically and generally illiterate, abuse the word and it now means whatever they want it to mean. 'Probate court' will confuse you to death.
'trustee of a will': no such thing. A will is not a trust. Stop it! (Nor am I presently interested in an estate manager (see below) being akin to a trustee. He is not a trustee unless there's a trust. A completely different thing: a will might happen to contain a trust deed. Then you can talk about trustee(s) of that 'will trust'. It's important to protest at 'trustee of a will' because it's obviously incorrect and because the dumb lawyer who would have you believe it is capable of further error and deception.)
'executrix', 'administratrix': however appropriate — some female estate managers are indeed very tricky — it's time to stop stupidly using stupid Latin.
'estate manager': this is my generic term for ad col grantee, executor, interim administrator, full administrator, etc. Incredible we don't have an established generic term. (Incredible too that English does not have a word to describe a dishonest person. I use 'dishonester'; hence 'dishonestee'.)
'power-attorney': this is my generic term for an attorney appointed by a power of attorney. Incredible etc.
'inheritance theft': don't use it except to refer to an offense formally so called. Such offenses are extremely rare. (Can you name the jurisdictions?)
'inheritance hijacking': a reprehensible term if there is no such offense. (There is no such offense on any statute book anywhere on the planet, so far as I have been able to ascertain.) So the fancy-pants FOS lawyer now has to find a real offense. Run.
DISINHERITANCE
Various jurisdictions vouchsafe some classes of heir an inheritance whatever the deceased's wishes. I think that is despicable, and do what I can in my various consulting practices to properly circumvent it. If a testator wants to lawfully properly effectually disinherit someone, that's what will happen.
INHERITANCE CRIME
In my personal and professional experience, much inheritance crime is perpetrated by amateur and professional estate managers, especially lawyers (especially, by a long way, female lawyers). And by the victim heir's own lawyers, especially self-professed specialists. These are specialist professional criminals. Check out https://www.inheritancecrime.com.
I'll be covering selected juridical inheritance stories reported in the press.