Relatives fighting over properties...how would you deal with it?

Been there, done that scene. And your exactly correct, mamoagmemoirs, GREED is the key word here. Our family was torn apart almost 27 years ago by the one family member that already 'had it all', ie, a new house, nice cars, owned a large retail business along with his regular job (whatever that was, I really never knew). When our father passed, his oldest son from his first marriage, thought he should run the show when it came to dividing our father's estate. He almost destroyed our entire family. He wanted everything withdrawn from accounts before all final expenses were paid. What a mess the whole situation was. And the really sad part was, our father's whole estate wasn't worth over twenty thousand dollars!! That was to be split six ways. I guess he needed the money to support his gambling habit, considering, from what I understand, is over one hundred thousand a year these days. Personally, I really don't know because I've only spoken with him twice since this happened all those many years ago and have no desire to speak with him for the rest of my life.