Tuesday, May 17, 2011

NEET Tips

NEET Tips answers questions posed by visitors to the NEET website

What should be on the agenda for an estate planning family meeting?

The circumstances surrounding the family meeting often drive the agenda. Most family meetings include having the attorney provide the children a general overview of their parent’s estate plan, including how the plan is designed to work, and how the children will inherit, e.g. either in trust or outright. If the children are inheriting in trust, which is increasingly common, the children need to be advised of the benefits of this approach, and the importance of leaving assets in trust for as long as reasonably possible. A similar discussion is usually held regarding IRA assets and how they will pass. Successor trustees and other fiduciaries should also be informed of their future role, what will be expected of them, and how they can access help when they have questions.

One of the primary purposes of a family meeting is to avoid surprises later, so that children can understand what their parents did in their estate plan, and why they did it that way. Family meetings are not appropriate for all families, but when possible, they can head off disputes later that invariably become costly and cause needless divisions among siblings.

For more information on family meetings, see the NEET article:

A Family Meeting to Discuss Your Estate Plan