I have represented three sisters against their brother over their mother’s will.
I’ve represented a child who was adopted and thought she had a great relationship with her presumed half-sister and then found out the sister wanted all of the deceased father’s estate. We had to find tissue and get DNA testing to resolve that matter despite all of the family photographs.
I’ve represented cousins against a decedent’s lover, who got the decedent to leave his entire multi-million dollar estate to the lover. We showed up for trial at 1PM. The judge sent us to discuss settlement … three different times I announced that I would proceed with the trial because there could be no settlement, and three different times the other side blinked. We finally settled at 7:30 PM (kudos to the judge and his staff for staying so late).
I’ve had to represent a probate estate against a former business partner to get what was due the decedent pursuant to the buy-sell agreement.
I’ve represented grandchildren against their father, who was named as trustee by the grandparents, to get him to account and give up the money, many years after it was supposed to have been distributed to the grandchildren.
And there have been so many more……
So is there a human cost to estate planning; yes there is…. It can be minimized if there is harmony in the family and the choices of individuals to serve roles (e.g. executor, trustee) are good choices. But if there is not, or there is a bad actor influencing the situation, the cost can indeed be a high one.