Now and for the past couple decades, we are experiencing the greatest generational transfer of wealth in our nation’s history. I am talking about wealth being willed from the “Greatest Generation” to Baby Boomers. I wonder how these Boomers, as heirs and/or siblings, might react knowing of their pending windfall.

As parents live longer, they suffer illness, both physical and mental. This presents to some heirs an opportunity to hone-in on and manipulate the elder, often fragile, parent.  Maine Public Broadcasting had an informative story on this topic a couple years ago which focused on contesting probate.

Fear is instilled in the elder parent, and attempts to villainize other potential heirs is usually part of the strategy with convincing the elder parent to sign the homes into their own name. For those people who trusted their siblings and then find themselves out in the cold, no longer an heir, their problems have only begun. 

In Maine, good luck to people finding an attorney or a legal firm that is willing to take on probate contests and, more importantly, capable of doing so. Across our nation, contesting a parent’s probate is a fast-growing legal field.

I encourage the Maine State Bar Association to focus on creative solutions to probate contesting issues, especially like the one I described above. Part of the solution would be creating alternative payment for probate contest legal services. Anything to help balance the scales of justice. 

Pamela Gilpin Stowe, Auburn

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