When you’re looking at the sum total of the assets that you are going to be leaving behind to your loved ones, you are in a sense slicing up a pie. The first logical thought that you may have would be that the fair way to do this would be to give each of your children equal inheritances.
Many people go this route, and it certainly makes sense on the surface. However, there are those who evaluate the needs of each respective individual and allow these evaluations to play a role in their decision-making.
Quite simply put, what if one of your children needs an infusion of money much more than another?
You could say that you shouldn’t punish a child for being successful. However, at the same time the logic behind giving more to the person with more need make sense on a particular level as well.
This is a very sensitive and somewhat complicated conundrum, but in the end each person is going to have to make his or her own personal decisions. What we would like to point out is the value of communicating these decisions to the interested parties in advance of your passing.
If you don’t explain the rationale behind your choices to your children, there could be a less than resonant dynamic existing in the family after you pass away. And, there could even be legal actions taken if the child who was bequeathed less was to feel as though you were unduly coerced, or acting while you were not in full control of your faculties, when you made these decisions.
Letting your family know why you made certain choices can go a long way toward nipping any future family feuds in the bud.
