Family & Disputes
Common estate planning myths
A short list of widely held beliefs that are not accurate, each of which causes real harm.
Family & Disputes
Contests, blended families, executors and reducing conflict.
Family & Disputes
Where to start if you have nothing in place
A practical sequence for anyone who has been deferring this, ordered by consequence rather than by complexity.
Family & Disputes
The letter that goes with the will
A document with no legal force that does more than most of the legal ones to prevent conflict.
Family & Disputes
When someone is left out and finds out
The reaction is generally about the message rather than the money, and there are better and worse ways for it to happen.
Family & Disputes
Sibling relationships after a parent dies
The parent was frequently the thing holding the relationships together, and the estate is where that becomes visible.
Family & Disputes
Financial exploitation of older relatives
Frequently committed by someone in a position of trust, and the estate consequences surface after the person has died.
Family & Disputes
Mediation for estate disputes
A process that addresses what estate disputes are actually about, which litigation is structurally unable to do.
Family & Disputes
Disinheriting someone
Possible for most relatives, restricted for spouses, and requiring specific drafting to survive a challenge.
Family & Disputes
Caregiving, expectations and the estate
One child providing years of care while others do not is among the most reliable sources of estate conflict.
Family & Disputes
Blended families and competing claims
A surviving spouse and children from a previous relationship have structurally opposed interests, and plans that ignore this fail.
Family & Disputes
Contesting a will, and whether it is worth it
The grounds are narrow, the costs are high, and the calculation is frequently made in anger rather than in arithmetic.
Family & Disputes
Talking to your family about your plans
Most estate disputes trace to information that arrived after death rather than before it.
Family & Disputes
When families fight over an estate
Disputes are rarely about the money and almost always about something older, which is why they are so difficult to settle.