Inheritance Heists Ch. 4: Helping Grieving Clients in Estate and Trust Disputes

I’m Mike Hackard with Hackard Law.  I’m sharing passages from my new book Inheritance Heists – and I hope that they can help you avoid estate disaster.

As legal professionals dealing with inheritance disputes and elder abuse cases, we often find ourselves caught between two imperatives: the need for swift, decisive action to protect our clients’ interests, and the importance of acknowledging and respecting the grief process our clients feel.

In my years of practice, I’ve learned it’s crucial to consciously make space for the grief clients experience. I’ve found it immensely helpful to do the following:

Validate Emotions: Recognize that grief in inheritance disputes is valid and complex. It may involve mourning not just the deceased, but also lost relationships with living family members.

Encourage Support Systems: Advise clients to seek emotional support from appropriate sources, whether family, friends, or professional counselors.

Maintain Perspective: Help clients balance their immediate grief with long-term perspectives on family relationships and personal wellbeing.

Allow for Grieving: Understand that the legal process may need to accommodate periods of intense emotion and grief.

Promote Healing: Where possible, encourage paths to reconciliation and forgiveness, recognizing that emotional healing often transcends legal outcomes.

Our clients are human beings experiencing one of life’s most profound losses. Their grief is not just a sidebar to the legal issues at hand; it’s an integral part of their experience and can significantly impact their decision-making process and overall wellbeing.

If you need help in your inheritance dispute, you can call us at Hackard Law: 916-313-3030.  We want to hear your story.