Odd, Surprising, & Potentially Cruel Inclusions In Individuals’ Wills

Among the 51 unique items bequeathed in people’s last wills and testaments, published on the Pets Reporter, these top 16 stand out for their particularly unexpected and surprising nature.

#1: Playing Favorites

• Family friends with a net worth in the seven figures and two children left everything to their daughter, while giving $1 to their estranged son “for reasons known to him.” This prevents potential legal disputes as the son cannot claim he was accidentally omitted from the will.

#3: Mom and Daughter Feud

• My grandma’s will clearly states that one daughter gets nothing, and she wishes that particular daughter not to be informed of her death until after the burial. The will emphasizes this intention so that she can’t contest it.

#6: Not-So-Friendly-Reminder

• My great-grandmother left most of her money to a local donkey sanctuary.

#9: Grandma’s Favorite

• My grandma left a penny and a nasty comment to almost every person in her will – all of her sons and daughters, even a few grandchildren, except for me. I got $1,000 dollars!

#16: Contents of the Outhouse

• My great-uncle’s will gave his outhouse contents to the City Council after they tried taking his land for a water plant. He fought eminent domain claims and sent them books and magazines from the outhouse as a joke.

#21: Dad Doesn’t Get Anything…

• I’m the executor of my grandmother’s will. I am set to inherit the house and its content, along with a share of the life insurance split between me, my sister, and my mom. Surprisingly, the will strongly excludes my dad, labeling him as worthless and denying him any inheritance, even just a table he supposedly wanted. Thanks to grandma, things will be awkward.

22: Not Going to Waste This on a Vegan

• My father wanted to leave his Big Green Egg smoker to me, his son, but changed his mind when he realized I was dating a vegan. He worried the smoker might got to waste if I married my vegan girlfriend, so he decided to leave it to my sister instead.

23: Her or the House

• My home to my son, A, unless he is still married to B, then the house shall be sold and the proceeds given to C Baptist Church.

24: All’s Well That Ends Well

• My great grand uncle had Down Syndrome, so his mother asked one of his brothers to look after him and in return she would give him the house in her will. When their mother died, he pretty much immediately sent him to a care home and did not bother looking after him at all. Funnily enough, this turned out to suit both of them very well as at the care home my great grand uncle ended up getting on very well with another woman with Down Syndrome, and his brother got the house to himself. All’s well that ends well I guess.

28: Mommy’s Favorite

• My mother left $1 in an envelope for several people and letter stating why she was leaving the folks only $1 each but leaving me everything. It made my mother’s funeral pretty interesting.

30: Army Buddies

• My grandfather hated his neighbor. They lived next to each other for 20+ years. Grandfather ended up leaving this neighbor $10k, a car, and golf clubs in his will, shocking us all. We thought they hated each other, but it turned out they were army buddies and played a long scam on both families.

31: Welcome to the Roasting

• My grandmother’s will states: This son isn’t getting the gold ring because… this son isn’t getting my care because… my daughter isn’t getting my paintings because… and roasted all of them except one son “because he’s responsible.” Which is fair, but I’ve never heard of a will where people got roasted so bad. She’s still alive. Read it out loud to them all last year. It was pretty great.

35: One Last Surprise

• Not necessarily a will, but my grandpa left a sweet surprise for my grandmother to find when he passed. Upson cleaning out his wallet, he found a note saying, “Alyce, look in the envelope in the top drawer of the desk in T’s room. I love you.” When she went to the drawer, she found an envelope filled with years worth of lottery tickets, scratch-offs, etc. In the end, I think it totaled out to around $9k. She would always give him grief about spending money on those tickets. now, she cherishes that note and envelope so much.

37: Brothers For Life

• My sister’s mother in-law is leaving her house to her three sons. If one wants to sell out his third of the house, he has to sell it to the other two brothers for $1.

38: It’s Only Fair…

• My godfather is a total nut job. Never had a real career and was always terrible with money. Last year his parent, who were very well off, left him $50,000 a year for 30 years. His siblings got lump sums of the same value. He was absolutely irate. He told his siblings he was going to take them all to court. He hasn’t followed through on that threat yet; he’d surely lose.

47: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

• I had a Russian client. Son of an oligarch. His father created a trust which provided dispositive provisions for if he was kidnapped and not found within certain number of months. Freaked me out. I believed the will had similar language too, but I can’t remember now. Edited: now that I think about it. I believe there was a separate document (in addition to the trust) that provided that his will should be effective to the extent he was kidnapped and not recovered within a certain period of time.