Misleading Advice by Columnist

A recent installment of Annie’s Mailbox provides some inaccurate legal advice.

A grandmother writes that she is uncertain how to treat a step-grandchild vis-a-vis a biological grandchild.  Specifically, she asks, “If we do a fund [trust] for our blood-related grandchild, are we somehow obligated to do the same for somebody else’s * * *?”

The advice given is that if the step-grandchild is adopted by the grandmother’s son, “you must treat him the same as your biological grandchild” [emphasis added].

This is misleading in the the grandmother has no legal obligation to treat each grandchild the same although failure to do so might cause family disputes.

The moral of this tale is the people seeking legal advice should consult with a lawyer, not an advice columnist.

To read the entire column, see Annie’s Mailbox, Korean Harold, Jan. 2, 2006.