Remember all those times your grandmother begged you to come visit? Apparently, some grandchildren in Austria didn’t visit… Whatever the reason, an Austrian grandmother went to great lengths to keep her family from getting her money, going so far as shredding €950,000 ($1,020,490 U.S.) just before she died. Not content to stop there, she also cut up her savings accounts books. Reportedly, the shredded bits were found on her bed at the nursing home just before her death.
Why would she go to so much trouble? In Austria, as in many countries in Europe, it can be difficult to disinherit your relatives. Absent a will, your estate will pass to your spouse and your children (or grandchildren). With a will, you must still, by law, include provisions for certain “mandatory heirs” like spouses and lineal descendants. That means you might have to take matters into your own hands – in this case, your own hands and a pair of scissors.
That should have been the end of the story. Gone grandma, gone money.
But the country’s central bank didn’t see it that way. Friedrich Hammerschmidt, the deputy head of the country’s central bank’s cashier division, the Oesterreichische Nationalban, has said that the bank will replace the shredded funds in order to pay the heirs, saying, “If we didn’t pay out the money then we would be punishing the wrong people.” The replacement of the funds assumes that the heirs still have the shredded bits (you gotta think this is one time that they hope they’re weren’t as tidy as usual).
Would those disappointed heirs have experienced the same result in the United States? Probably not – for a lot of reasons.
In most states, you can absolutely disinherit your children. It’s easily done with a few words via your will (if you don’t have a will, you’re out of luck and they will inherit by statute). Interestingly, that wasn’t always the case. It used to be that if you failed to mention your children in your will, the court acted as though you had simply “forgotten” them and would correct your “mistake” by including your omitted children in your estate. That prompted President Calvin Coolidge, in 1926, to leave one of the shortest wills in history:
Not unmindful of my son John, I give all my estate, both real and personal, to my wife, Grace Coolidge, in fee simple.
Just 23 words. But it got the point across.
Today, while you can disinherit your kids via a will (even by omission), you can’t always do the same with your spouse. Considered against public policy, most states prevent you from disinheriting your spouse and instead designate a fraction of your estate (one-third is typical) as a share intended for your spouse. That share, sometimes called the “elective share,” can generally be claimed by a spouse against your estate (and against your non-probate assets like life insurance and retirement plans) even when you have intentionally omitted him or her inside your will. There are typically just two ways to avoid paying your spouse at your death: prenuptial agreement or divorce.
Destroying your money shouldn’t be an option. In the United States, it’s a federal crime. Per 18 U.S. Code §333 you can’t destroy cash:
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
(Or coins per 18 U.S. Code §331.)
Of course, the punishment is debatable: it’s pretty hard to throw a deceased person in jail (though not impossible). But there are loads of easier ways to accomplish your wishes.
So lesson learned? In the U.S., to make sure that your property goes exactly where you want it, proper estate planning is super important: you can accomplish a lot with a well-written will. And oh yeah: call your grandma.
