Have you ever been to the reading of a will? If so I have a question...
 

Is it like you see on TV sometimes where everyone gathers in a room, and someone reads it out loud, as to who gets what and then every one in the room knows everybody elses business...

Or is the 'Reading of a will' more a turn of phrase where you are actually contacted individually and discreetly to discuss whatever personal provisions have been made for you?

Or while I guess either are possible, is there a 'default' way?

Come on dude, can you really afford a will??? ;)

You don't have to attend a will reading. I went to my Mom's. Basically a lawyer reads it out loud to family and then answers questions. There's nothing much to it.

This. For those who want to attend, they can. A probate attorney simply reads it off. People have questions, concerns, arguments, etc. My uncle passed and left me one of his old trucks (didn't run). My family went to the reading of the will, I didn't. I received a letter in the mail about a week later from the attorney telling me how to claim the property. I ended up donating it to charity since it would have cost more to ship from Indiana than what it was worth.

One of my very early memories is of the reading of my grandmother's will in a cramped law office. That side of my family is Sicilian, and it was a big crowd, about sixteen aunts and uncles and some of my cousins.

It turned out that my grandmother had changed her will in her final years providing for an equal distribution of her estate among all of her children. This was a big surprise because her sons had been promised a special and more advantageous legacy. The two uncles would have gotten a two-flat income property and the six aunts would share the remainder. There was high drama involving threats to kill whomever had taken my grandmother to the lawyer's office to change her will - she was elderly, afflicted with painful arthritis that made it hard to walk, illiterate and spoke no English, and so my uncles knew that one of my aunts had helped to get the will changed. This heated exchange spilled into the outer office and then onto the street. It is quite hard to forget the memory of one's uncles threatening to kill one's aunts, especially at age 7 or 8. It was my introduction to the world of law. BTW, those uncles never found out who was responsible.

So, if there are some surprises revealed in a will, it can amount to a very dramatic scene. I suspect that this is a rare outcome and that the reading is a boring, mechanical task in most cases, with some advice given to the person who will administer the estate.

It's amazing how the true colors come out of people when money is involved.fucking vultures.I would donate the whole lot to charity.

I've seen the triumph of the will ...

Thanks for the reply. Shitty situation indeed :(

The reason I asked is cause it looks like I may be a beneficiary of a semi distant relative who's not long for this earth. I am a very private person when it comes to money, and while I am not in the least bit interested in whatever is left to others, in an ideal world I'd prefer that they didnt know what had been left to me... None of their business imho

But if thats the way its gonna be, then thats fine. Its my own privacy I was concerned with, over and above any interest in others :)