If you were retired & planning your will, would you bother leaving anything to these next of kin?

[JohnDB]

Well since you want to know what I would do...
I would start a 501.C.3 charity to disburse the funds and assets.
I would seek out friends I trusted to help by being on the board of directors.

The whole thing can be set up for under $500 including legal fees and licensing.

The way the funds are to be disbursed would be carefully crafted into the charter documents and several successors to replace me as chairman (out of the board) would be named sequentially and how new board members can be recruited to sit on the board (as well as qualifying characteristics)

Then it's a self perpetuating charity. I'm not necessary. Others might want to join you in your altruistic endeavors... you wouldn't have a problem with that would you?

 

[mama2one]

Did the siblings know about it?

no, of course not
do people tell others about their will?

 

[justme6272]

no, of course not
do people tell others about their will?

I don't doubt that some people would tell the beneficiaries in their wills, especially relatives, and some would not, letting them wait to find out when they get a call from the executor, assuming the beneficiary can be found. It's funny to think of movies or TV shows where the family sits around and waits for the executor or some lawyer to perform a formal 'reading of the will' in front of a mansion's living room fireplace. I can't imagine anyone seriously doing that in real life. As for an account with beneficiaries named, I'm sure lots, if not most people tell the beneficiary, whoever it is, so that they know to go get their money. I'm sure some people's wills, perhaps even most people's wills, don't even mention such accounts cause they don't have to. Such accounts have nothing to do with probate unless the decedent chose to mention the accounts in the will just as a backup. I was advised to do that by the designated gifting department representative of a very large non-profit. Rather shrewd on her part, as a tactic to make sure they got their money if I decided to name them as a beneficiary in an account that no one would otherwise know about.
An interesting topic might be, "Why would someone NOT name beneficiaries in a simple financial type account, thereby letting it go to probate?"

 

[justme6272]

It doesn't...

Why that sort of thing coming second in importance to me to sharing the Gospel? Perhaps you'd have to have watched your child die of cancer (while poor) to understand...

Found this if interested.
Executive Compensation at St. Jude’s (2018)