Raoul/Katherine Inheritance

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:Faith is the first born sibling and has already held the title of Steadholder, yet James will inherit the Grayson title because he's male. Relegating Faith to simply a temporary placeholder. Although the title had already been hers. IOW, she already has experience. And, I thought possession is nine-tenths of the law. Certainly prepossession is five-tenths, half of the law. LOL

What? First since Grayson changed their inheritance laws so that women could gain the title (except for the position of Protector), which is why Faith became the nominal Steadholder in the first place; why do you expect her younger brother to have priority? Second they are in line behind Raoul so need not expect to get that title.

If Honor were to be the closest relative to Devon and she renounced the Countess Harrington title on his death (since she was already Duchess Harrington), then that title would go to Faith.

Correct. My badd. I got carried away with the twin business.

What I meant is, it's not fair that Raoul gets the Grayson title since Faith already had it. She's got the experience. LOL

I know the reasoning behind it, straight-laced Graysons prefer long-johns to petticoats. It just all reminds me of Steve Harvey's snafu when he mistakenly gave the Miss Universe title to the wrong woman, then had to embarrass her and himself by taking it back.

cthia wrote:There seems to be a mess in Alison's family too. Who inherits the Benton-Chou pot after Alison, Alfred and Honor are gone? Between the twins

Allison has two older brothers, so unless the wills stipulate otherwise, each gets a third when their parents die. Then Allison's share is again divided by one third, each to Honor, Faith and James. I suppose that Allison would allocate a larger share to Faith and James, since Honor is already a billionaire, but how big a share is allowed under Beowulfan law is unknown. In some countries today, 50% of one's assets cannot be allocated in the will and go to the widow(er) and children, regardless of preference. And then they have to pay inheritance tax.

And when Honor dies, each of her three children will get one third of what Beowulfan assets she got from her mother. So barring wills stipulating otherwise and either Allison or Honor having more children, Raoul, Katherine and her unnamed child would get 1/27th of what their Beowulfan great-grandparents had.

cthia wrote:What I meant is, it's not fair that Raoul gets the Grayson title since Faith already had it. She's got the experience. LOL

I know the reasoning behind it, straight-laced Graysons prefer long-johns to petticoats. It just all reminds me of Steve Harvey's snafu when he mistakenly gave the Miss Universe title to the wrong woman, then had to embarrass her and himself by taking it back.

That does not follow, it would NOT be fair for Honor's first child to lose the title to an aunt simply because she had briefly held it as a baby. This has nothing to do with a possible Grayson preference for a boy, rather than a girl, Steadholder and all to the random chance that Honor's first born was a boy.

Unlike Steve Harvey's snafu, Faith was honestly given the title based on the facts known to everyone on Grayson at the time.

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:What I meant is, it's not fair that Raoul gets the Grayson title since Faith already had it. She's got the experience. LOL

I know the reasoning behind it, straight-laced Graysons prefer long-johns to petticoats. It just all reminds me of Steve Harvey's snafu when he mistakenly gave the Miss Universe title to the wrong woman, then had to embarrass her and himself by taking it back.

That does not follow, it would NOT be fair for Honor's first child to lose the title to an aunt simply because she had briefly held it as a baby. This has nothing to do with a possible Grayson preference for a boy, rather than a girl, Steadholder and all to the random chance that Honor's first born was a boy.

Unlike Steve Harvey's snafu, Faith was honestly given the title based on the facts known to everyone on Grayson at the time.

I agree with all you said. And I imagine something similar and as gentle was explained to Miss Columbia before the title was unceremoniously removed from her head after it was ceremoniously given. I'm sure the explanation was enough to stifle the tears.

No need to make a stink over it though, she probably doesn't even care.

cthia wrote:No need to make a stink over it though, she probably doesn't even care.

Babies make enough stinks of their own.

MC1560 wrote:This family is perfectly set up for conflict.

munroburton wrote:But yes. Emily & Katherine got the short end of the stick, I won't argue with that.

cthia wrote:Let's face it, Emily was the rock of that family, but everyone looked up to Honor, but Honor. The kids probably all want to be like Honor.

cthia wrote:If Raoul doesn't want it, can he pass the title to Katherine? Who may end up managing everything anyway if Raoul is somewhere on a warship trying to be "half the man his mother is."

Honor casts a long shadow. Raoul, as her son, will have a tough time living up to her.

For Katherine, the daughter of the woman Honor supplanted, it will probably be worse, having to compete with Honor and the true Harrington children.

Don't want to end up being perceived by everyone as the lesser child of the lesser wife.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

cthia wrote:There seems to be a mess in Alison's family too. Who inherits the Benton-Chou pot after Alison, Alfred and Honor are gone? Between the twins

Allison has two older brothers, so unless the wills stipulate otherwise, each gets a third when their parents die. Then Allison's share is again divided by one third, each to Honor, Faith and James. I suppose that Allison would allocate a larger share to Faith and James, since Honor is already a billionaire, but how big a share is allowed under Beowulfan law is unknown. In some countries today, 50% of one's assets cannot be allocated in the will and go to the widow(er) and children, regardless of preference. And then they have to pay inheritance tax.

And when Honor dies, each of her three children will get one third of what Beowulfan assets she got from her mother. So barring wills stipulating otherwise and either Allison or Honor having more children, Raoul, Katherine and her unnamed child would get 1/27th of what their Beowulfan great-grandparents had.

I don't understand that. Why would any inheritance from Honor be hijacked by her brothers instead of it being earmarked for Honor's kids?

I'm also assuming any Benton-Chou stock is solely owned by Allison. It is her career field and business. She doesn't owe her brothers anything from that, unless they are investers. Especially the genetic clinic on Grayson.

cthia wrote:I don't understand that. Why would any inheritance from Honor be hijacked by her brothers instead of it being earmarked for Honor's kids?

I don't think I expressed myself correctly.

Jacques, Anthony and Allison each get a third of what their parents had, when they die. Honor, Faith and James get a third of what Allison had, when Allison dies. Raoul, Katherine and the other child get a third of what Honor has. That means Faith and James get one third of one third (one ninth) and Katherine, Raoul and the the other get 1/27th.

I'm also assuming any Benton-Chou stock is solely owned by Allison. It is her career field and business. She doesn't owe her brothers anything from that, unless they are investers. Especially the genetic clinic on Grayson.

That depends on whether Allison's parents stipulate such a thing in their wills. Barring that, Allison and her two brothers get an equal share of the inheritance.

cthia wrote:I'm also assuming any Benton-Chou stock is solely owned by Allison. It is her career field and business. She doesn't owe her brothers anything from that, unless they are investers. Especially the genetic clinic on Grayson.

I am not sure how much wealth Allison has personally. In OBS Honor's parents were working at a company controlled by Klaus Hauptman; he threatened their employment when he met Honor. The genetic clinic on Grayson was an endowment by Honor, so Allison might only have a salary and not stock.

PS. While checking things I found that my memory was a bit faulty: Faith had been accepted as the new Steadholder by special action of the Keys. It was not until Honor's return from the dead that the general law of inheritance was changed to permit females to hold the title, excepting any existing male heirs and the office of Protector.

tlb wrote:I am not sure how much wealth Allison has personally. In OBS Honor's parents were working at a company controlled by Klaus Hauptman; he threatened their employment when he met Honor. The genetic clinic on Grayson was an endowment by Honor, so Allison might only have a salary and not stock.

Allison's connection to the Benton-Ramirez y Chou of Beowulf was not widely known. Honor wasn't important enough (yet) that Klaus Hauptman would have done a thorough background check on her parents, beyond finding out where they worked. Besides, ruining their practices would have mattered a lot, even if that didn't make them down and out.

Are Allison's parents still alive? Allison and Alfred are around 90 years old now and the oldest First Gen Prolong recipients were around 120, so it's possible they are. They probably were among the first 20 people in the universe to get it: wealthy Beowulfans that probably even worked on the research. And even if they didn't get prolong so they could live to 300, they probably had a very long lifespan anyway, sufficient to account for the fact that Allison is much younger than her two brothers.

If they are alive, then their wealth still belongs to them. And even if they aren't alive now (1923), they may have been during OBS, so Allison hadn't yet had to report a large inheritance on her income taxes.