Is there someone you have considered leaving out of your Will? There are plenty of reasons for wanting to exclude someone, a group of people, or everyone you know from inheriting from you. Maybe you’ve had a falling out, maybe they haven’t kept in touch like you hoped, or maybe you just like animals better.
Personally, my dog is probably getting everything before I die. Look at this cute face
People who know me are probably tired of hearing me say it, but I believe that no one is entitled to an inheritance. Whatever you want to do with your earthly possessions is entirely up to you. There’s no wrong decision- whether you want to leave everything to your children, your church, or your dog. It’s just a personal decision, like your hairstyle (although a bit more permanent decision).
If you don’t have a Will, the law in Tennessee leaves your estate to your closest relatives. By making a Will, you can leave your assets to anyone you like. The only exception to this is that you cannot disinherit your spouse or minor children.
If you don’t want your spouse or kids to inherit because you don’t like them, I hope you will consider counseling. However, that’s another personal decision. So is divorce, which is the only way to remove your spouse’s right to inherit from you. If you don’t like your kids, you have to wait until they turn eighteen to disinherit them.
If you want to disinherit someone, I encourage you to make it clear in your Will. If your Will goes through the probate process, the Court will look at what your intentions were. Leaving a nominal sum like $10 means that the person is not truly disinherited- they inherited $10. We like to acknowledge that the person has been disinherited and, depending on the situation, a brief statement about why. We are kind but firm to reduce any confusion or potential for a contest in the future.
And remember, relationships change and so do Wills.
By adding someone else to your bank account, you are giving them an ownership interest in whatever deposits you make into the account. What I often see is that the parent is the only one making deposits, but the child is handling transactions, usually to the parent’s benefit but sometimes in a way that might later be called into question.
Joint checking accounts with your children pose many issues
In the process of counseling clients, I often learn that an adult child has been added to a parent’s bank account as a joint owner. If this is something that you have been considering, please think again. While it can be fine under some circumstances, it can also cause problems down the road.
You will be responsible for your child’s unpaid debts
One danger to this is that if the adult children have an ownership interest in the account, and the child has unpaid debts, a creditor might try to collect the money owed to them out of the joint account, even though all the money belongs to Mom or Dad!
Your children will have issues with getting an equal share of your inheritance
Another sticky point of adding a child to a bank account is if you have more than one child. Often parents want their children to inherit equally and make arrangements for that through their wills or beneficiary designations. However, most joint bank accounts include a right of survivorship on the account paperwork so that if one account owner dies, the other account owner can continue using the account and gets to keep any money in the account. If you intend for your children to inherit equally, but only one of them gets the money in your bank account, that might cause some resentments and even lawsuits.
Give your children powers of attorney for finances instead
So what should you do instead? In most cases, I recommend designating someone you trust with your money to act as your attorney-in-fact for financial matters. By signing a Power of Attorney, this person will have the ability to manage your banking transactions, but will not have an ownership interest in your accounts that could cause the problems described above.
If you’re interested in obtaining a Power of Attorney or other estate planning documents, contact us to see how we can help.
