“Don’t just pass down the cash,” Leslie Gillin Bohner cautions Kiplinger readers, emphasizing what we’ve been emphasizing to our Geyer Law estate planning clients for more than a quarter century.
Benefits of in-person family estate planning conferences:
- From a practical standpoint, family conferences help acquaint the younger generation with the members of their parents’ advisory team. This makes settling parents’ affairs much simpler later on.
- A conference allows parents to openly share with loved ones the values and assumptions – along with the issues – that have gone into their estate planning choices.
- Sibling disputes often erupt after a parent dies; family conferences, while they may not “solve” the issues, bring them out into the open and explain the reasoning.
- Adult children who are aware of an anticipated inheritance can factor that into their own financial planning.
- Recent national legislation establishing “Trump accounts” and Indiana updates to ABLE accounts can provide “reasons” for arranging a family conference.
- Using today’s “Zoom” technology, family members with mobility issues can be part of virtual meetings.
“Don’t just pass down the cash. Families need to prepare their heirs through communication,” Bohner emphasizes. Here at our Indiana estate planning and elder law firm, we couldn’t agree more!
– by Nicole Eckert, Attorney at Geyer Legal Group, PC
