Smart Contracts for Family Wills

The Problem

The father and mother of a family die, leaving two kids, one home, and a mixture of stocks and cash in the bank.

The father and mother made a will, but there is a dispute about whether the executioner follows the will. What if the executioner is not following the will, withholding the money in the bank, and preventing the surviving family members from their share of the inheritance?

What if the executioner is one of the kids, and they feel that the will is invalid and they are not getting their fair share? That person may improperly change or falsify the will, so it goes in their favor.

So there can be a lot of issues that arise depending on the executioner.

Could Web3 and smart contracts solve or alleviate this issue?

The Solution

To simplify the problem, we will just deal with the will involving the stocks and cash in the bank.

1. So the family hires a developer to create a smart contract will.
2. In the smart contract, upon the death of the father and mother, the stocks and money will be split 50/50 between the two kids.
3. The Smart Contract will connect to the local county database via API to check if the death certificates for the father and mother exist.
   1. The code can check the local county database for the death certificate daily or weekly.
4. If the death certificate exists for both parents, then it will connect to the Bank via APIs and transfer the ownership of the stocks and cash to the kids.

And that is how smart contracts can be used to replace an executor of a family will.