If you have a family business, you likely need a business succession plan. If you own a substantial amount of real estate, you may be deciding if you want to pass that to your beneficiaries or sell it and leave them the money. If you have significant financial assets, you may have a complex plan in place to spread funds between numerous beneficiaries, transfer the money into a trust and much else.
While dealing with all of these major assets, it’s easy to overlook low-financial-value items that have significant sentimental value. Examples could be an instrument that you’ve played all your life, a book that you read to your children when they were young or a painting they remember hanging on the wall in your dining room. Even though these aren’t worth as much from a monetary perspective, you still need to include them in your estate plan.
How disputes arise
The issue is that sentimental items often give rise to estate disputes. If you want to ensure that your children won’t be fighting with one another after your passing, planning in advance is one of the best ways to do so.
Making a clear plan helps because family members often don’t have many other options. Two people can’t own the same asset, even though they both have an emotional connection to it. No one wants to sell these special family heirlooms just to divide the money.
Disputes may arise if your family members don’t know who you would have selected to receive specific items, so leaving them a plan can head off these disputes. Be sure you know what legal steps to take.