12-22-2021, 05:41 AM
I have a very simple will, drawn up maybe 20 years ago, updated about 5. Sometime this coming year, once I've been retired for a little bit, I'll draw up another. I have no kids and have already told my two nephews that $500k each is plenty for them IMO - I have already given each of them enough to start a Roth once they met earned income limits. The rest will be for planned giving. A big piece will be deciding what sort of tool to use for this.
I am very sorry to hear about the family issues. Just my perspective but I could never let a fight over money jeopardize my relationships with my sisters. But I have seen it first-hand. In my real job a couple of times I tried to help split a farm family partnership. After two of these I quit. At some point the conversation switched from "Is it better to do or not do this? to "Are we winning?" It was never the farmers but the family. And in a decent-size farm operation you can always find a piece where one side is winning. You don't split a grain handling system or machine shop in half - you get appraisal estimates and reach an equitable agreement where Farm A gets the shop, Farm B gets the grain system.
After I gave up each time they hired attorneys and came to roughly the same arrangement as I did - one case even used the appraisals I had gotten. But while attorneys were always going to be a piece of the process to draw up final documents, in each case the families contributed an extra several tens of thousands to support the legal profession.
I am very sorry to hear about the family issues. Just my perspective but I could never let a fight over money jeopardize my relationships with my sisters. But I have seen it first-hand. In my real job a couple of times I tried to help split a farm family partnership. After two of these I quit. At some point the conversation switched from "Is it better to do or not do this? to "Are we winning?" It was never the farmers but the family. And in a decent-size farm operation you can always find a piece where one side is winning. You don't split a grain handling system or machine shop in half - you get appraisal estimates and reach an equitable agreement where Farm A gets the shop, Farm B gets the grain system.
After I gave up each time they hired attorneys and came to roughly the same arrangement as I did - one case even used the appraisals I had gotten. But while attorneys were always going to be a piece of the process to draw up final documents, in each case the families contributed an extra several tens of thousands to support the legal profession.