How it can go completely wrong
In the autumn of 2009, the foundation received an inheritance from the late Margareth Briggs from Canada. Margareth knew Jozef Rulof personally and corresponded with him in writing. She voluntarily translated a number of books from the Masters into English. Using the money from her inheritance, the foundation can look towards a hopeful future. The completion of this inheritance ran very smoothly because Margareth had drawn up a sound will which met all the requirements. Apparently, she had made sufficient enquires into all the matters which can be described in a will.
However, that same autumn, the foundation also 'received' another inheritance which had a far less positive outcome. The situation is so distressing that we have decided to make wills a special topic, in the hope that we never have to experience such a situation again. The completion of this inheritance is a textbook example of how it can go completely wrong...
The 'testator' in question had drawn up a will in the year 2000, in which she would leave 2/3 of her possessions to Society Spiritual Science Foundation "The Age of Christ". This lady did not have any children and had not had any contact with her family for years, who in her experience had caused her much suffering. Everything was arranged properly so far, you would have thought.
A few years after drawing up her will, this lady began to suffer from dementia. The dementia gradually worsened and a few years later, this lady suffered so much from dementia that she could no longer take care of herself (after cooking, she forgot to turn off the gas, et cetera). Her neighbour who had been following the progress of her dementia informed her family that she needed help. Her family replied by telephone that this lady could get lost, they did not want anything to do with her. The neighbour then consulted a doctor who arranged for this lady to be taken into a care home. After her death, we hear from a notary public that we have been left an inheritance. However, the notary public dealing with her will encountered a problem. It appears that a month before her death all her money was taken out of her bank account. More than €200,000 had been transferred to her brother's bank account. After requesting the payment statement, it appeared that the statement had this lady's signature on it.
Together with a lawyer, the notary public researched the whole affair thoroughly, for years. All the persons involved who were questioned know and state verbally that, towards the end of her life, this lady's dementia was such that she would really no longer have known that she had placed her signature, and would have been even less aware of what she was signing. During that time, she no longer even recognized her best friends, her neighbour or her family.
When the expert people involved are asked to confirm in writing that this lady had suffered dementia to such a degree that she was no longer aware of what she was doing at all, all these experts refuse to do this and refer to the medical confidentiality. The family doctor, the doctors treating her in the care home, as well as the admissions committe which made the referral, state that they cannot say anything due to 'privacy legislation'. Legal research confirms their standpoint: in the Netherlands, 'dementia' belongs under medical confidentiality, so you will not get a confirmation in writing regarding what each person involved knows: that this lady no longer had any idea what she was doing.
It was confirmed that during the last months of her life, this lady was collected a once by her brother's daughter, in order to 'visit' her 'beloved' family; apparently, the payment assignment was signed during such a visit.
The whole case is presented to us with the question of what we wish to do. It appears: we cannot do anything, although, logically, we can imagine that this lady wanted to leave her money to the foundation, because she had had that recorded by a notary public when she was of sound mind. We could even imagine that as a spiritual person this lady is standing next to us and wants her wishes, recorded in her will, to be carried out, but despite this we can do NOTHING. The two notary publics who looked at this matter also find this course of affairs distressing, but they are powerless.