I say put a word into the ear of the richer one that he would be blessed to share his equal inheritance with his less well-off brother. Who knows, maybe the wealthy one is already sharing with his brother.
My father-in-law has a reasonable amount of money, and he has experienced a series of medical problems up until now, including some form of degenerative heart disease recently.
He’s outlived his wife, and I’m scared that he’ll get sick more this year, and in the end decide to give up now because he doesn’t want to get hit with death taxes next year.
At least he doesn’t have to worry about his children disconnecting him on December 31st just to get more money. I bet there will be an upswing of power of attorney disconnections in December of this year.
It’s your estate. Why ask people what to do with it? Do you ask people what to do with your money or other belongings?
First, how does she know the teacher is less well off? Has she computed the value of benefits, tenure, etc or is she comparing who has the higher car payment?
Second, if she gives it to the one who can make more money with it then that sibling would have more resources to take care of his siblings.
Was it Lincoln who said that people are usually about as happy as they want to be?
If the sons are inclined to be satisfied, they will be. If not, no division of inheritance will please them, whether equal or unequal.
If you’re that worried, sell everything now and spend it.
Raffle and Chinese auction should not be ruled out either. ;)
Leave it all to The Salvation Army.
This too goes beyond estate planning. I have siblings that have not had much success primarily by what I see as lack of trying and very bad decisions. My wife and I have worked VERY hard to be successful financially. The result is that my siblings’ kids (my nieces and nephews) receive things from my parents that my kids would never be given. Everything from college tuition to cars.
It is their money and they can do with it what they want, but when your kid asks why Grandma doesn't buy them a car, its hard to explain that they are better off earning the money to buy their own car. Which is what we expect them to do.
We recently went through this with my father-in-law’s death. He divided the estate(small estate)very unequally...with it heavily weighted to wife number three and her ner do well daughter. Three other children (two of whom have given him grandchildren) were pretty much given the shaft even though they were the ones who spent time with him at holidays, etc.(the ner do well daughter never called him “Dad” but used his first name). It has left a lot of hurt feelings that will be there for years and created a rift with the “family” that will never be healed. Equal is the right thing to do.
Proverbs 13:22
Leave none to the sons.
This one is a tough call. Neither of the sons has what I would consider a respectable job. I think I would leave my inheritance to care for my cat!
Sure! Sounds perfectly Socialistic to me! Punish the rich and areward the poor! s/
As equal as possible is usually better. People can’t help but read motives into anything other than an equal split, and it will create ill will between siblings where none need exist. It will always be there.
The fact that one child has more money is neither here nor there. Each chose his life’s work, each made his decision (and each is engaged in honorable work) and in most cases its not appropriate to account for that in the will. There are exceptions, but as a general rule you should not use the will to settle grievances and you should try to treat your kids equally where possible (even when one seems less deserving than another). I’ve heard of people using the will to settle a grievance and its not pretty.
An exception is where you’re dealing with whole property rather than money, where the property is not going to be sold but left intact, or in the case of a business that is to be run by one of the kids. That gets more difficult, because some things can’t be divided. Some businesses can’t be run by just anyone, and some kids may have no interest in the business.
To hell with both, write a new will stating:
Being of sound minek I spent it all!
OK, I'll crawl down off my soapbox and go on about my business.
Give the one who voted for Obama less (redistribution), give the conservative one more! If they both voted for Obama, give the money to your church. If they are both conservative, treat them equally (that’s what they would want).
They raised their kids to adulthood, what more can be asked of them?
Mom & Dad worked very hard to accumulate their estate and while us kids may not have had the same recreational opportunities as our friends, we were loved, fed, kept warm, etc. Mom doesn't owe us a thing.
I'm hoping that Mom (Dad has passed already) enjoys herself and leaves this world with just enough to cover her funeral expenses.
Just by way of example, we cared for my mother in law for the last few months of her life. She had cancer. Then we cared for my father in law for the last four years of his life. Not easy, as he suffered from psychological problems and was very difficult.
They left the estate to their two children equally. Hubby was the executor of the estate and trustee of the trust. Hubby's sister suffers from psychological problems too, and she is also very difficult. She was terrified that he may get something more than what she got, so she filed lawsuit after lawsuit, accusing hubby of stealing from the estate, and accusing him of being responsible for his father's death. Most of the estate went to pay to fight these frivolous lawsuits, and most of the remainder went to pay taxes. Very little left for the two to split.
Father in law knew before his death that sis in law didn't want hubby to be the executor. He should have discussed his knowledge and concerns with hubby. He should have been more clear in what he wanted. I don't know how, maybe he should have taped a video to reinforce to his daughter that he wanted his son to be executor. He did tell me before his death that he had been to see the lawyer, and that he made hubby executor of his estate, and that his daughter didn't want her brother to be the executor, but he thought that if she was the executor, hubby wouldn't get anything.
As I age, if one of my kids is there for me a great deal, I will certainly take that into consideration as I rewrite my estate plan.