Everybody thinks that their family is immune from long drawn out disputes over an inheritance. The reality is that there is almost always some kind of friction and bad feelings can crop up suddenly after the death of a loved one once money gets involved requiring a family law attorney.
Some families can be torn apart over the conflict which is exactly what the deceased would certainly not want to happen after their passing. Sometimes it happens even when there isn’t a significant amount of money in the will.
In this article, we will go over several of the ways that you can do your best to make sure there is little possibility of a family fracturing as a result of an inheritance.
1 – Have a living will
Things can happen long before you think they will and having everything tidied up will avoid a lot of confusion later. Having a living will is part of this as many disputes come up when caring for a family member that is no longer of sound mind and body but is still living.
Make sure that you specify how you want things to be handled, and by whom when you are not able to make decisions for yourself any longer. Part of this should also include a living trust so that your finances are placed in the care of a third party to avoid any problems about how it should be distributed.
Then, your finances will be properly distributed upon your death as per your will without much confusion thanks to this document.
2 – Keep estate plan up to date
Every once in a while you should make a review of your estate to see if there is anything that needs to be updated. It’s one of those types of loose ends that can cause a rupture in the family when the time comes to execute the will.
Any life changes should be followed up by one of these reviews as it can impact your estate and even tax liability.
3 – Talk to your family
One thing that causes a lot of problems later is that the will can take them by surprise. Some think they are entitled to more or thought that the estate was bigger than it actually is. You can make sure that everybody knows exactly what will happen in the event of your death so there are none of those surprises later on.
Hearing from you how you came to the decisions about who would get what will go a long way towards reducing any feelings of ill will.
4 – Don’t procrastinate
If you put things off until later and later never comes then there is a big gap in what needed to be done. And this is when the problems arise. When things are not clear because there are parts of the estate that are not in the will then that is when things get contested. And families begin to argue and fight.
