{"id":24146,"date":"2025-09-27T03:26:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T03:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=24146"},"modified":"2025-09-27T03:26:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T03:26:53","slug":"the-reading-of-the-will-only-happens-in-fiction-death-and-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=24146","title":{"rendered":"The reading of the will only happens in fiction | Death and dying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Shane Hickey\u2019s article on dealing with a deceased person\u2019s property (Sort as you go and don\u2019t rush: six steps to clearing out a loved one\u2019s home when they die, 17 September) talks about what should happen \u201cbefore the will is read\u201d. There is no such event as a formal \u201creading of the will\u201d except in Agatha Christie novels and TV melodramas. The contents of a will should be well known to the deceased\u2019s executors and solicitor (if\u00a0there is one) beforehand, and can be acted on immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Indeed, it may have to be if it makes any statements about funeral wishes. Oh, and all wills in the UK become documents of public record after probate is granted and can then be \u201cread\u201d by\u00a0anyone \u2013 unless the deceased is a\u00a0royal, of course, and the family\u00a0are worried about oiks learning their business.<br \/><strong>Graham Mullan<\/strong><br \/><em>Bristol<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><em><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>email<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>letters<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shane Hickey\u2019s article on dealing with a deceased person\u2019s property (Sort as you go and don\u2019t rush: six steps to clearing out a loved one\u2019s home when they die, 17 September) talks about what should happen \u201cbefore the will is read\u201d. There is no such event as a formal \u201creading of the will\u201d except in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[376,141,2945,1067],"class_list":{"0":"post-24146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-death","9":"tag-dying","10":"tag-fiction","11":"tag-reading"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}