The following is an excerpt from my book Serious About Retiring, Temuna Press, 2019. It is available at Amazon.
There are many reasons why now, as you plan for retirement, may be the right time to review and perhaps make changes to your estate planning.
- You may originally have done your estate planning long ago.
- Your family, health, and/or work circumstances may have changed.
- You may have very different ideas about how you want your estate handled after your death.
- You now likely have a realistic attitude toward mortality and an acceptance of the fact that “you can’t take it with you.”
- You may have witnessed the results of successful or unsuccessful estate planning for your parents or other relatives or friends.
- If you have successfully managed your money so far and continue to do so during retirement, you may well have a considerable amount to pass on. A larger estate may be the result of
- the growth of your savings and investments over time,
- an inheritance,
- funds remaining in an emergency buffer built up to deal with, say, healthcare expenses, and
- your house, if you still have one.
A challenge in working on your estate plan is deciding how best to distribute the funds. What if you have more than one offspring and their circumstances are quite different from one another? For example, one child or grandchild might have serious health problems and future expenses but not the other children. Do you give more to the individual who needs it the most? Or what if one child is far more financially successful than the others? Do you give that one less? Or if you have already made substantial monetary gifts to one child, do you give more in your estate to the others to make up for the share they missed? Or what if you like one child less than the others? Do you arrange to leave him or her less of your estate or even nothing at all?
Answers to each of these questions have financial ramifications as well as psychological ones. Is an equal distribution the same as a fair one? There is no single right answer to any of these questions, and you may well have different ideas from others you know. You must decide what is right for you. As the circumstances for you and your beneficiaries evolve, you can imagine working quite closely and productively with your estate planning attorney.
The author does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, accounting and financial advisors before engaging in any transaction or taking any actions regarding the content discussed above.
If you have comments or questions, contact me at Mark@SeriousAboutRetiring.com