Background
Our client came to Changchun after losing their mother. There were three co-heirs: our client, their father, and a sibling with a severe intellectual disability for whom our client served as guardian. Our client wished to inherit the mother's estate alone, in order to support a father and a sibling who had no income.
What Was at Stake
Dividing an estate between a guardian and their ward is an act in which their interests may conflict, so the law requires the appointment of a special representative and the court's approval to protect the ward. Moreover, an agreement giving the guardian the entire estate could easily be seen as disadvantageous to the ward, and approval might well be refused.
How Changchun Helped
Changchun (attorneys Jonghoon Kim and Jiyeon Kim) first had a special representative appointed for the sibling, then set out in detail the family's income and living circumstances as a whole and our client's obligation to support the father and sibling, developing the legal argument that sole inheritance was in fact the reasonable course for the family as a whole.
The court approved the agreement under which our client inherited the mother's estate alone. The case shows that even in an inheritance involving a guardian, a thorough showing of the circumstances can achieve the outcome the family wants. (Outcomes depend on the facts of each case and may differ.)