When it comes to inheritance one thing most individuals dread happening, or deeply regret that it?s happened, is having family members wage war against their own flesh and blood.

Most laymen believe that greed is at the heart of family blood fights over an inheritance, but attorney and author P. Mark Accettura ? expert on inheritance conflict resolution and elder abuse ? says it is a myth that selfish motives are the driving force behind family blood baths after a parent has died.

?The fight for money and things, such as Dad?s watch or Mom?s wedding ring, is not about the object or money itself, but is really about what the money or object symbolizes ? importance, love, security, self-esteem, connectedness and immortality,? says Accettura whose conclusions are based on three decades in the legal trenches aided by five years of research in social psychology, evolutionary psychology, psychiatry, gerontology, and neuropsychology.

That life experience and research culminated with the August 2011 release of Blood & Money: Why Families Fight Over Inheritance and What to Do About It (ISBN 978-0-9669278-4-9, Collinwood Press, Farmington Hills, MI, 2011, http://www.BloodAndMoneyBook.com 283 pages, $21.95).

Blood & Money not only details the psychological reasons why families fight but provides practical legal remedies to prevent such blood-letting disputes after Mom or Dad die. The author?s fourth book offers an unprecedented understanding of family dynamics as applied to estate planning. The book will be a Godsend to a wide audience of lawyers, elder service providers, financial advisors and family counselors, as well as parents, stepparents and children.

Accettura offers some 60 specific recommendations to help parents, offspring, and their advisors prevent inheritance squabbles and preserve the most valuable legacy of all ? the family itself. The concluding chapter outlines appropriate legal remedies to minimize the damage caused by bad actors and toxic wills. Whenever a spouse dies and the surviving spouse remarries, Accettura stresses it is critical for a new will and trust to be drawn to protect the interests of the new spouse and the natural children. ?When a remarried parent is negligent and does not draw up a new will and trust,? says Accettura, then the blood is on the parent?s hands for not taking care of the business necessary to keep peace in the family after death.?

The author says the role of an estate planning attorney when family members are fighting is to serve as a counselor and find a means to resolve the inheritance conflict. ?An attorney must be sincere, transparent, honest and fair but most of all be a peacemaker,? adds Accettura. ?The goal is to resolve the family conflict, not to identify a breach of responsibility or breach of law and file a lawsuit which will serve to heighten the conflict rather than producing family peace.?

Brian Dickerson, editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, writes that Blood & Money is an indispensable primer for those on both sides of inheritance issues. ?Only in the narrowest sense is this a guide to estate planning or elder care,? says Dickerson. ?Mark Accettura has provided a wise and surprisingly moving account of what each of us must do to enhance and preserve that most priceless of assets ? the family that is uniquely our own.?

Similarly Grady Harp, an Amazon Top 4 Reviewer, writes that Blood & Money ?is not only skilled writing from a profound thinker but it is also a volume packed with advice on how to live more consciously and how to prepare for ?inheritance issues? before they occur. Accettura has provided a solid book on social evolution and likely the only reliable written history of inheritance. It is packed with important information and wit as well!?

And Peter Lichtenberg, PhD of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, Detroit, says that ?Blood & Money takes a multidisciplinary approach to inheritance disputes. It explains the psychological reasons that families fight, why dementia opens the door to foul play, and the legal implications of bad behavior?it will no doubt be a reference for years to come.?

Accettura said he was inspired to write Blood & Money because of an increase in elder abuse, because of the growing epidemic of Alzheimer?s disease, because 65 percent of Americans fail to plan for their death, and to uncover the reasons why families fight at the death of a loved one.

In Blood & Money, the author explores the impact of dysfunctional families and personality disorders on inheritance disputes and contrasts the toxic, bitter battles involving super-rich personages such as Leona Helmsley, Summer Redstone and Brooke Astor with the conspicuously philanthropic such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

About P. Mark Accettura An estate planning, inheritance conflict resolution, and elder law attorney for 30 years, P. Mark Accettura has counseled thousands of families on estate and inheritance matters. He lectures frequently on estate planning topics and for 10 years was an adjunct professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. For five years, Accettura hosted LawTalk, a regular television series seen via cable in 37 cities in Michigan. Besides Blood & Money, Accettura has written Medicaid and Long Term Care in Michigan (2005), The Michigan Estate Planning Guide (2002) and Lost and Found: Finding Self-Reliance after the Death of a Spouse (2001).

Media Contact: For a review copy of Blood & Money, or to schedule an interview with Mark Accettura, please contact Scott Lorenz, President of Westwind Communications, 734-667-2090 or http://www.Book-Marketing-Expert.com