Why are will details in newspapers?

foxinsox

I hope this is the right forum, wasn't sure where to ask it, so mods please move if more appropriate somewhere else.

Often when reading newspapers (today's Indo for eg) there is usually a small paragraph mentioning someone who has passed away and the amount of money left when they died.

I also noticed today that it states that this is not a cash amount but includes family home and contents etc.

I read them for a nose and see who had a fortune stashed under the bed :pac:

Can someone explain to me why these details are made public at all?
Is there some legal reason?


It would solve my mystery for today.

Marcusm

Part the process of proving a will (probate) involves the will becoming a public document held at the Probate Office (and later the natiOnal archive). Some may say that the reason the newspapers include details is to facilitate any aggrieved potenti claimant becoming aware. However, as the details are only published after the assets are distributed, it's really to satisfy our prurient interest in other people's affairs!!

johnnyskeleton

In the uk up to about the 70s as far as I know, divorces were published in the papers, and not just the celebrity ones. I suppose it's a cheap way to fill column inches

coylemj

foxinsox wrote: »

Can someone explain to me why these details are made public at all?

A will becomes a public document once it's admitted to probate. In small town Ireland people just love to read those numbers - 'oh look Johnny, yer man Cahill the chemist who died last year left one and a half million, the fecker wouldn't spend Christmas and he was sitting on all that money!'

foxinsox

Thanks everyone..

So it seems to be just filling space and pandering to peoples' curiousity..

^^ As the line above about Cahill the chemist.. lol

I always feel a bit like that, especially when the person mentioned was a "homemaker", I always have this vision of an old lady trapsing to the shops every day in a mangy coat and buying half pint of milk and half a loaf of bread !

"Who'd have thought she had millions stashed away!"


Any idea why the decide to print the ones they do?

Do you reckon they just go for the ones that are higher amounts or the ones that might have shock/gossip quality?

It's kinda sad in a way..

coylemj

foxinsox wrote: »

Any idea why the decide to print the ones they do?

Do you reckon they just go for the ones that are higher amounts or the ones that might have shock/gossip quality?

Both - the big numbers and anyone even vaguely famous.

krd

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

In the uk up to about the 70s as far as I know, divorces were published in the papers, and not just the celebrity ones. I suppose it's a cheap way to fill column inches

Well, when some fat wobble neck - you know privately educated rugby aficionado (You know the kind I'm talking about - they look like they have a testicle stuck half way down their throat instead of an Adams Apple) marries a wobble neck from another private school - school for wobble neck girls.

When the wobble necks get married, it's always in the paper. They like to advertise the fact........they've matched a breeding pair.

Why can't we hear about their divorces....divorce is awful..but it's always entertaining to watch bloated social parasites fight over inherited wealth - or wealth to be inherited, once their worthless parents die.


Never mind a few column inches....I don't know why the Indo doesn't do at least a weekly spread on these couples...Before and After photos....Pompous stuck up couple getting married....and then the divorce pictures - jowly pre-maturely middle-aged man...and his whale of a soon to be ex-wife - eyes popping our of her fat head. Fighting like dogs over property.

coylemj

krd wrote: »

Well, when some fat wobble neck - you know privately educated rugby aficionado (You know the kind I'm talking about - they look like they have a testicle stuck half way down their throat instead of an Adams Apple) marries a wobble neck from another private school - school for wobble neck girls.

When the wobble necks get married, it's always in the paper. They like to advertise the fact........they've matched a breeding pair.

Why can't we hear about their divorces....divorce is awful..but it's always entertaining to watch bloated social parasites fight over inherited wealth - or wealth to be inherited, once their worthless parents die.


Never mind a few column inches....I don't know why the Indo doesn't do at least a weekly spread on these couples...Before and After photos....Pompous stuck up couple getting married....and then the divorce pictures - jowly pre-maturely middle-aged man...and his whale of a soon to be ex-wife - eyes popping our of her fat head. Fighting like dogs over property.

Were you late getting home from the Fine Gael Ard Fheis?

Delancey

The last President of the High Court voiced his disapproval of the practice of publishing wills and it was suggested publication would cease - thankfully this hasn't happened ( I have a profound interest in matters that are none of my concern ).

johnnyskeleton

There are also occasions when an administration of an estate has to take place. Typically, this is where either a person dies intestate with children in an unknown address abroad, or leaves a gift to someone who has died and has to be distributed to an unknown number of children.

Perhaps the reason why they print the wills is to keep the probate section going so that where they have to put a proper notice in they have somewhere to put it.

Mind you, I can't ever imagine a scenario when someone is just casually reading the probate section and goes "My word, aunt Bessie just died."

foxinsox

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Mind you, I can't ever imagine a scenario when someone is just casually reading the probate section and goes "My word, aunt Bessie just died."

^^

One can always live in hope :pac:

She's my Aunt Bessie by the way!

Milk & Honey

There was a time when people got credit from shops and other business and the understanding was that the bills would be paid when the rich old parent/aunt/uncle died. The publication of the value of the estate sent the beneficiaries creditors on the chase. i am sure that many a bank manager watches the distribution of an estate with interest (pun intended) in these times.

bureau2009

A relative of mine died several years ago.

I'm curious as to who (and how much!) this relative left to members of my extended family...........how would I find out?

Put another way, do the general public have access to people's wills?

Thanks.