Recently, friends have expressed their anger in their circle of friends that they were shocked by the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, California, USA. They can't believe the bottomless behavior of the "Bay Area scum man" in the incident: they met their new girlfriend less than a month after their wife's death, got married nine days after they met, refused to buy a cemetery for their wife and son, and drove their former father-in-law out of their home. Let's put aside the anger, condemnation, and other emotions towards the "Bay Area scum man" and imagine how the mistress would arrange her property during her lifetime if she saw today's situation in the Heavenly Kingdom. Will she still leave it to her husband? Will she still appoint her husband as administrator of her estate? What inspiration do we ordinary people derive from this incident, and how should we examine the issue of our respective wills? From the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, we have seen the untested nature of human nature, and realized how important it is to make a will under the guidance of a professional lawyer and select the appropriate estate administrator during our lifetime. The concept of making a will and appointing a professional lawyer to act as an estate administrator has not yet taken root in the hearts of the people of the mainland, and it is still unacceptable for the vast majority of people deeply influenced by Confucian culture. However, the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley has taught us a vivid lesson. For ordinary people, we also have to change our concept and accept the rational arrangement of appointing a lawyer to help make a will and appointing a lawyer as the administrator of the estate. Let's leave aside the issue of wills in the United States for the time being, and only discuss the issue of inheritance and administrators in China in the context of the era of our Civil Code.

According to publicly reported news collected from the Internet, the general process of the incident is summarized as follows: The man and the woman are both graduate students from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, who have migrated to the United States for many years and are both technical elites. The man works at Google, the woman works on Facebook, has been married for more than 20 years, has a son and a daughter, and has a $4.5 million independent villa in the U.S. Bay Area. The woman detected cancer in 2020, and died in May 2021 nearly a year after fighting cancer, The woman only told her parents the truth two months before her death, and their parents flew to California to accompany the only girl through her final moments. Three days before her death, the woman made a will under the guidance of her husband, leaving all her property to her children and husband without leaving any property for her parents (it was reported that the woman feared that leaving the property to her parents might be deceived and did not give it to them, and the man orally promised to pay their parents' living expenses), and arranged for the man to serve as her estate administrator. After the death of the woman, the man and his children received approximately $2 million in compensation from Facebook, the company where the woman worked during her lifetime (Facebook has an insurance system that allows the deceased employee's base salary to continue to be paid to relatives), as well as $50000 in funeral expenses. In June 2021, the man met his new girlfriend and married her 9 days later. The new wife flew to the Bay Area to live with the man. During the aftermath of the woman's death, the man was unwilling to purchase a cemetery for her and buried her ashes in his own yard. The woman's parents clashed with the man over issues such as the woman's cemetery. In view of the various behaviors of the man, the woman's parents asked the man to pay the living expenses in a lump sum and help him buy a ticket for returning home. The man disagreed, and there was a fierce conflict between the two sides. The man called the police and claimed to have been threatened with death, requesting the police to expel the woman's parents. "In this way, the woman's parents were driven out of their homes and had no money to buy tickets to return home. As a result, they wandered into the streets. The incident was disclosed by the woman's classmates in the media, causing a heated discussion.".
The following article takes the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, California, as a wedge to discuss the current issue of inheritance and estate administrators in China.

1、 Basic principles of inheritance

According to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, heritage is the legal personal property left over by natural persons upon their death. After the commencement of inheritance, it shall be handled in accordance with legal inheritance; "If there is a will, it shall be handled in accordance with testamentary inheritance or legacy;"; "If there is a legacy maintenance agreement, it shall be handled in accordance with the agreement.". "A natural person may, in accordance with the provisions of the law, make a will to dispose of his personal property, and may appoint a testamentary executor.". A natural person may designate one or more of the legal heirs to inherit his personal property by making a will. A natural person may make a will to donate personal property to the state, a collective, or an organization or individual other than the legal heir. Natural persons can establish testamentary trusts according to law (the establishment of testamentary trusts requires the involvement of professional lawyers). Therefore, from the relevant legal provisions, it can be seen that the principle of priority of testament is followed in the treatment of inheritance in China. In the case of a will, it is handled according to the agreement of the will, and only in the absence of a will or the invalidity of the will, it is handled according to legal inheritance. Therefore, if a natural person wishes to arrange his or her property and other matters according to his or her own wishes, he or she must take the initiative to make a legal and valid will during his or her lifetime.

2、 Form of Will

The Civil Code stipulates various forms in which natural persons can make wills, including self written wills, written wills, printed wills, audiovisual wills, oral wills, and notarized wills. The law has strict requirements for each form of testament. Once a will made by a natural person does not meet these requirements, it is highly likely to become invalid. According to media reports, due to the unclear legal requirements of ordinary people, nearly half of domestic wills are invalid. Such a high proportion shows how important it is for professional lawyers to intervene when natural persons make wills. "A natural person made an invalid will. After the natural person died, his former relatives went to court in order to compete for the inheritance, and their family members were completely bereaved, contrary to the original wishes of the natural person. Therefore, it becomes very necessary for a natural person to entrust a professional lawyer to help him make a will when making a will.". The woman in the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, California, USA, rushed to naturalize and make a will three days before her death without understanding the legal provisions of California and without the assistance of a professional lawyer, following her husband's guidance. This led to many embarrassing events that occurred later.

3、 Notes when making a will

A natural person makes a will to fulfill his or her wishes and to prevent disputes between relatives over inheritance and harm their family ties. However, improper wills not only cannot avoid disputes, but may also deepen such disputes. Therefore, before making a will, it is necessary to entrust a professional lawyer and sign a will under the guidance of a professional lawyer.

When a natural person makes a will, it should be noted that a natural person must have full civil capacity, that is, a will made by a person who has reached the age of 18 and is in a normal mental state is valid (older elderly people should pay more attention to this issue when making a will). Wills must be the true expression of the will of a natural person, and wills made under duress and fraud, as well as those that have been tampered with or forged, are invalid (many elderly people, when making a will, are forced to deal with their own property against their will at the request of their cohabiting children, which often occurs in practice). The content of a will shall not violate the law or harm the interests of the state or the collective. In addition, we should also pay attention to the following issues of the will:

1. The content of a will should be legal and detailed

Natural persons can only stipulate in their wills the inheritance of their property, "The portion of the property that involves another person is invalid (such as: the portion of the property disposed of by another heir; such as: the husband remarries, disposes of the portion of the estate of his deceased ex-wife, and has children with his ex-wife, and the property is in a state of joint ownership; disposes of the company's equity held on behalf of him, and the property rights enjoyed as a well-known person; the husband and wife can only dispose of their own share of the property, but not all of it),", The property of natural persons not involved in the will will be inherited by the legal heirs in accordance with the law after their death. It is also important to note that when a natural person makes a will, they should pay attention to leaving the necessary living security for the disabled person they raised during their lifetime.

2. Making a will should be carefully considered rather than blindly impulsive

Making a will can have a significant impact on both the natural person and the heirs of the estate. Therefore, when making a will, a natural person should objectively evaluate the heirs of the will, and should not make a will because of temporary anger or blind obedience to others. Some natural persons, especially the elderly, deprived their inheritance rights due to a temporary quarrel with a certain child, and later regretted changing their will again, which not only harmed their feelings with the child but also wasted time and energy.

3. Choose the appropriate form of testament

The forms of wills include oral wills, self written wills, written wills, witness wills, notarized wills, and audiovisual wills. Among them, lawyer witness testament and notarial testament are relatively professional and reliable forms. Entrusting a lawyer to provide witness services when making a will can ensure the legality and validity of the will. In addition, many notarial institutions have established testament centers to provide legal services for notarized wills. It should be noted that in the era of inheritance law, notarized wills have priority over other forms of wills in terms of effectiveness. However, the Civil Code cancels this principle and grants equal effectiveness to various forms of wills. When a natural person has made several wills, the last valid will is used as the basis for the disposition of the estate.

4、 Entrust a professional lawyer to help make a will and act as administrator

The "Civil Code" established the system of estate administrator for the first time, which is a major innovation and highlight in the field of inheritance. It determines that after the commencement of inheritance, the executor will be transferred to the estate administrator. The Civil Code also stipulates the ways, duties, rights, and obligations of the estate administrator. The estate administrator system will play a significant role in realizing the will of the heirs to distribute wealth, protecting the heirs' legitimate inheritance rights, and ensuring the lawful and orderly distribution of the estate among the rights holders. The administrator of the estate is undoubtedly a very important legal role creation, and has an indispensable legal status in inheritance. As the level of economic development has greatly improved and trading methods have diversified, significant changes have taken place in the types and types of legitimate wealth that people possess. The determination of heritage includes not only traditional real estate, bank deposits, cars, etc., but also assets such as equity, stocks, bonds, virtual property, intellectual property, and various forms of other investment interests that cannot be identified and ignored. For example, the controller of a private listed company died young and did not make a will during his lifetime, leaving a huge legacy. In addition, there are many family members and complex relationships. The family has repeatedly raised equity disputes, and litigation has not resolved the issue of inheritance distribution for several years. The normal operation of the company has also been significantly affected. If a person has made a will and appointed a professional lawyer as his or her estate administrator during his or her lifetime, such estate disputes can be effectively avoided. In the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, California, the situation may be significantly different if the female owner did not appoint her husband as the estate administrator. Therefore, acting as an estate administrator by a lawyer can effectively eliminate or reduce estate disputes and conduct more effective management and disposal of the estate.

In addition, lawyers are naturally suitable professionals to serve as estate administrators. The advantages of lawyers serving as estate administrators can be summarized as follows: professionalism, neutrality, and good credit. The estate administrator needs to carry out a variety of professional tasks, including collecting customer information, preparing property lists and a wish list for estate division, maintaining and increasing the value of the estate, fair distribution, analyzing the estate, resolving heirs' disputes, handling creditor's rights and debts, and so on. All of these require the use of a large amount of legal knowledge, which lawyers are good at. When multiple claims and debts are involved, the division of inheritance is no longer just a single legal relationship of inheritance, but may also involve multiple fields of law such as company law, contract law, property law, and insurance law. However, ordinary citizens lack professional legal skills and relevant experience, making it difficult to straighten out various legal relationships and clearly and meticulously distribute and dispose of various legacies in accordance with the wishes of the heirs. Entrusting a lawyer to manage the estate can enable the efficient and orderly disposal of the estate. Moreover, the lawyer is not one of the beneficiaries of the estate, and is in a neutral position. He is more able to manage and distribute the estate fairly, impartially, legally, and reasonably than the heirs themselves. In addition, as a third-party entity, lawyers are effectively supervised by judicial bureaus and lawyers' associations at all levels, and their high credit rating is even more evident.

Although lawyers have many advantages as estate administrators, they also need to exchange and learn more professional knowledge, prevent and control related risks, continuously improve the ability and level of lawyers as estate administrators, and actively and standardized work. In addition, given the different professional fields of lawyers, it is best for natural persons to hire professional lawyers in the field of inheritance when appointing lawyers to help them deal with inheritance issues.
Returning to the "Lin Shengbin" incident in Silicon Valley, California, described at the beginning of this article, if a female owner can entrust a professional lawyer to help her make a legal and valid will that meets her wishes when making a will, and a professional lawyer serves as her estate administrator, then the embarrassing situation that her burial cannot be successfully completed after her death will be avoided, "Their white-haired parents will not be driven out of their homes by their husbands when they are heartbroken, even if they cannot afford a flight home and need donations from friends. Their children will not encounter the painful choice of standing among their loved ones while losing their mothers!"!