The Wealth & Wisdom Blog

Broaching political topics at Thanksgiving with your family may not lead to great holiday cheer. In comparison, a discussion centered around your own death—that is, your estate plan—may be far more palatable.  In this month’s advisory update, I provide a few general recommendations about what information that you and your clients could share with your family about your estate plan.

Information To Share Now

If you were a client of our firm, we would likely encourage you to share the following information with your family:

• The key individuals, or “fiduciary,” appointments that comprise your estate plan.
• Your plan for the distribution of unique, difficult-to-value, or perhaps even “indivisible” assets, such as valuable artwork, a family cabin, or a business.
• The identity of your professional advisors.
• The physical location of your legal documents.
• The whereabouts of a current financial statement, a list of your current service providers and summary of your online accounts.¹

Information To Withhold

In contrast, you might withhold information in certain circumstances.

• If you have concerns about a child’s personal career progression, you might withhold disclosure of your personal finances. A future financial inheritance should not be an impediment towards a child’s goals of self-sufficiency.
• If you have made disproportionate gifts among your children or their families, you might withhold disclosure, at least for now, of any such disproportionate gifts. We recommend that your estate plan expressly direct how any disproportionate lifetime gifts should be treated at your death.

Benefits of Communicating the Plan

At least three key benefits result from clearly communicating your plan during lifetime.

• Legal Certainty: First, you would be certain that the estate plan will not be subject to a legal challenge.² If you have adequately communicated your estate plan to your children at a time when you have no evidence of undue influence or diminished capacity, you will have a “bullet proof” legal plan.
• Desired Asset Distribution Format Among Children: Second, adequate communication allows for easy and prompt changes to your estate plan when life changes. A plan for the division of the family cabin can easily be reconsidered when a son announces that he and his wife have bought their own family cabin, or a daughter takes a new job and moves from Minnesota to New York.
• Clearance of Emotional Baggage: Third, adequate communication creates an opening for children to respond to you, now, over the Thanksgiving dinner table, and not respond with animus towards their siblings, later, after your death and over your coffin.

Unlike the drama that surrounds political candidates and elections, your estate plan should be free from unnecessary drama.

Minnesota Vikings fans know that no lead against the Green Bay Packers is safe. The Vikings nearly blew their 28-0 lead this past weekend, prevailing by a score of 31-29.  Bragging rights over the rival Packers will certainly be short-lived, as the Vikings and Packers will play again on December 29^th.  As the holder of a Wisconsin law license, I have been honored to work with many Wisconsin residents, who agree to work with me even after my disclosure of my Vikings loyalties.

In honor of the Vikings-Packers rivalry, in this month’s update I share three unique elements of Wisconsin estate planning:

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My family recently purchased a new vehicle.  To organize all the variables factoring into our decision, my wife Heather created a spreadsheet.  The variables included fuel efficiency, trunk size, headroom, and cost.  While my two sons lobbied extensively for a larger, sportier vehicle, Heather and I were not quite ready to “Die With Zero,” and so we opted for a medium-sized SUV instead.

In this month’s update, I briefly summarize the five separate legal means (“legal vehicles”) for the transfer of an asset at death, and the importance of categorizing one’s assets in one of these legal vehicles.  An asset is transferred by the first of the following five legal vehicles:

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On January 15, 2024, Iowa Republicans kick off the 2024 political season by voting for a Republican candidate for President.  In honor of the Iowa Caucus, in this month’s update I offer my thoughts on how to choose a candidate.  But rather than offering any opinions or endorsements for any political candidates, in this month’s update I summarize how to choose the appropriate key individuals, often referred to as “fiduciaries,” to implement your estate plan.

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