Dear Eric: Because my father-in-law was always angry at one of his sons (my husband and his brother) and changing his will accordingly, they agreed to split everything evenly, no matter what the will said. When my father-in-law passed away almost everything was left to my brother-in-law. True to his word, he sent us a check for half. We were grateful and expressed our thanks. About a year later my brother-in-law called asking to borrow $25,000 until a CD came due in a year. We sent the money the next day.