Ethical And Practical Estate Planning Tips

If you’re creating an estate plan, it may seem easy to just say who gets what and put what you want to happen in writing. Maybe you’ve even engaged a probate or estate law attorney to help you—a wise choice. But often, when it comes to creating estate plans, there are considerations that go beyond the law—often, we have to make legal, practical and ethical considerations in making estate plans.

Positions of Authority

When you create an estate plan, you will have to designate positions of authority. They may include:

• Trustees of trusts
• Executors or personal representatives
• Guardians for minors

These and other positions will have significant authority and often, discretion. Are the people you appoint to these positions, able to do the job? Are they fair and ethical? Or do they have a grudge against certain beneficiaries or hostility towards some beneficiaries?

Choosing people who are truly neutral towards all beneficiaries, and who have the time, skill, and diligence to actually do the job, is a non-legal but still crucial step in creating an estate plan.

Non-divisible Property – What to Do With It?

It’s easy to leave property to people. But some property can’t be divided, should you want multiple people to share property. For example, if you leave half of a business to one person and half to another—who actually runs the business? Or does the business get liquidated, and the profits sold?

You can dictate whichever you want to happen, or come up with a way for beneficiaries to decide that. But practically, if you leave that undetermined, you could be opening up the door for relatives to argue with each other.

Leaving Property That Needs Care

Some items have a lot of things that have to go with those items.

For example, it’s best to not leave a beloved pet to a loved one, without setting aside funds to help care for the pet.

Gun trusts are also similar—a gun trust may need to follow state and federal regulations, to allow the gun to pass on to relatives. Have you left funds to help whomever gets your gun, go through the legal hurdles it may take to actually transfer ownership? Or to buy the equipment that may be needed to store the gun legally and properly?

Valuing Property

Everybody wants to be fair in what they leave to people. The problem is that some items—like money, obviously—are easily valued. Other items—like businesses, artwork, or collections—may not have such a readily ascertainable value.

If you are trying to leave multiple people roughly even amounts of property, you may have to conduct an appraisal beforehand, to make sure that property without a definitive value, like artwork, or vintage cars, have a definitive value.

Ethical Unequal Distribution

Not every beneficiary has to be treated equally. It may be ethical to leave more to a beneficiary who is disabled, or handicapped, or who has more children, or who just may need more than another beneficiary.

It is up to you whether you distribute property exactly evenly, or whether you feel the more ethical route is an uneven distribution, to provide for those who may need assets more than other beneficiaries.

Whatever you decide, we can make your estate plan happen. Call the Torrance probate will and estate attorneys at Samuel Ford Law today.

Sources:

alpineprivatewealth.com/strategic-wealth/considering-collectibles-during-the-estate-planning-process/#:~:text=Collectibles%20can%20be%20a%20valuable,on%20based%20on%20your%20wishes.

nationalguntrusts.com/products/buy-nfa-gun-trust?srsltid=AfmBOorZDp6hGpb_0c3zYzUl9bElRLtvSfwvEqwAWFFQ1vr8xQBBKELc