A completely true story. This happened last year.

A wealthy friend of mine had included me in his new will for a cash amount in excess of 6 figures. He had told me several times he'd done that. The will was on his desk, unsigned but finished, when he was walking downtown, tripped, fell and hit his head against a building. Broke his neck, he was without O2 long enough to suffer brain damage, and died 2 minutes after life support was pulled.

Consequently his will reverted to one from the mid-90s which left me with a relative pittance.

I got to thinking about it. Had I inherited what he left I would have been fair game for all my cousins kids, their kids and their kids. They would have been after me for educational funds, help with houses, things for their children, and there would have been hard feelings all around. Not only could I not trust any dinner invitation, I would start to resent them. I would have had people from the past coming out of the woodwork with casual invitations to their kids High School graduations. Car repairs for relatives would have been a biggie, and offers to buy into coast properties, they'd just need one more partner to make it work.

I'd like to have had the money if I could have kept it secret, but to be honest I think it would have caused more grief than it would be worth.