I was reading yet another sad story about a family that set up a sloppy estate plan. The plan involved a mother and four children. The mother had a bank account with roughly $400,000 in it, and she was going to split the cash into four equal shares. However, for lack of better judgment, the mother left only one payable-on-death designation to only one daughter for the entire account. Now the daughter, who doesn’t have the character to manage the money and honor her mother’s wishes, won’t distribute the money to the rest of her siblings. Go figure.
Since the mother didn’t take an extra two minutes to list all her children on the payable-on-death designation at the bank, she set her children up to never speak to each other again. If you are going to set up a payable-on-death designation with a bank or financial institution where you want your children to share in the proceeds of the account, take the extra time to list all your children on the designation. That extra two minutes could prevent meaningless fighting in a probate court, but it could also allow your children to keep speaking to one another.
It could also save a rift in your family if you sit down and talk to them about your wishes. Then implement a well written estate plan to address those wishes. Be intentional about leaving your family a legacy.
