When you have more than one child, you may need to work extra hard on your Florida estate plan to help ensure fairness and reduce the chances of your children fighting with one another over their inheritance. Inheritance conflicts have the potential to do permanent damage to familial relationships, so the more you do to avoid family turmoil from the outset, the better.
Per AARP, taking the following steps now may help your children avoid costly inheritance battles down the line.
Leaving your children equal amounts
You may have your reasons for wanting to leave certain children more than others, but often, doing so may cause unnecessary stress and strife. If you have concerns about leaving a particular child assets because he or she is a spendthrift, consider using other estate planning tools, such as trusts, to control distributions for that beneficiary. That way, you still leave your children equal amounts – albeit through different mediums.
Giving your kids realistic expectations
Some Florida inheritance conflicts arise because adult children have misconceptions or grandiose ideas about how much they are going to get from a dying parent. You may not know exactly how much money you are going to have to give to your children when you die. However, giving your children at least a rough idea of how much they stand to inherit from you should help bring them back down to earth.
Once you are gone, your children may need each other more than ever. Taking care to be fair when crafting your estate plan may go a long way in terms of preserving the relationships that exist between your children.