August 20, 2025 / Press
Andrew Smith Shares Tips for Surviving a Contentious Estate Battle in MarketWatch’s ‘The Moneyist’
Andrew Smith recently weighed in on a reader’s question in MarketWatch’s “The Moneyist” column in which the letter writer shares a contentious battle over his deceased father-in-law’s estate. The reader shares that his father-in-law’s second wife, not named in his will, has falsified police reports, forged signatures, and changed locks for her own financial gain. Frustrated that his wife’s family is being pushed towards mediation, the reader asks “At what point do you stop believing the courts will deliver justice and accept that the game is rigged?”
Andrew urges the reader that, despite the alleged mistreatment his wife and her family have experienced at the hands of her father’s second wife, the law is in their favor, should they go to trial. However, the process will be slower compared to mediation.
“The process in the Superior Court to fight these sorts of injustices is often slower than parties expected,” he explains. “You will eventually be given the opportunity to present all of the evidence at a trial, call witnesses who can testify on your behalf, and present experts who will hopefully support your version of events.”
He continues, adding that the primary goal of mediation is to avoid spending countless time and money stuck in litigation, which would be a great benefit to the reader’s wife’s family.
“While the idea of mediating with someone who has harmed your wife’s family so thoroughly may seem offensive, the goal of mediation is always to see if there is some way to end the litigation earlier than trial, which would save many thousands of dollars of legal fees and likely months, if not years, of further anguish and uncertainty dealing with this litigation,” he adds.
Andrew concludes that mediation would not require the reader’s family to interact with his father-in-law’s second wife, but caveats that the decision to go to trial could potentially offer mechanisms to punish his father-in-law’s second wife for her alleged elder abuse, should the family emerge victorious.
“In any event, at mediation, you aren’t required to see or interact with your father-in-law’s second wife directly, and you are certainly not required to agree to anything unless you want to,” he says. “If you do go to trial and prevail, there are often mechanisms that can punish the wrongdoer for the harm they caused, from their own disinheritance to punitive damages for elder abuse and theft.”