My brother M passed away a few months ago. He had no wife or kids. We have another brother and my dad in the family. Much to everyone’s surprise he made me the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy (about $30k left after funeral expenses paid.
I make $35k per year and have a wife and 2 kids. We live simply and are out of debt. We were very close to M and he loved my kids. He also valued simple debt free life. We talked a lot about finances.
Our other brother K makes $100k per year. He has no family. And a gambling problem.
Our dad has $80k in savings and makes about $60k per year in retirement. He pays about $2k per month for my mom in a nursing home (the rest comes from her pension and other things).
K and my dad say I should give the money to them or at least some of it. They want $25k.
My reasoning is that M could have split it up on his beneficiary forms but chose not to. I can think of a few reasons (K’s gambling, our shared financial values, to help support our kids, etc.)
There is also about $30k in savings and investments that will go to my dad automatically as his next of kin, minus some bills. They want me to pay the bills with life insurance so they can keep all the money from the estate.
My dad and brother are so angry they won’t hardly speak to me over it. And when they do they just yell at me over the money.