As your parents grow older, you may wonder if they have an estate plan. You may be worried that there will be a family crisis if they don’t have a plan when they pass away.
At the same time, you don’t want to ask them if they have an estate plan and make it sound like you are just counting down the days until you can get your inheritance. How do you begin the discussion without making it awkward or sound like you’re just thinking about the assets you’ll receive?
The benefits of estate planning
One approach can be to discuss all of the benefits of estate planning. When someone passes away, the family can face a crisis when making decisions with little guidance, which increases the odds of estate disputes. One of the major benefits of having your parents write a simple will is that it lowers the odds of these disputes and helps things go smoothly.
Make your own estate plan
If you want a nice segue into this conversation, making your own estate plan can sometimes be helpful. You can then mention the different estate planning tools you’ve been using, such as a revocable living trust, powers of attorney, and an advance health care directive. You can talk about what you have learned as you went through the process and what the advantages are. Then you can ask your parents if they’ve done the same things.
Offer assistance
Many people who don’t have an estate plan don’t know where to start or what paperwork they need. They find the whole process of creating an estate plan a daunting task and would rather avoid it. You could offer assistance or guidance, telling your parents that you will help them make a plan if they don’t have one yet. This makes it clear that you intend to provide help, not to obtain your inheritance. Parents worry about what will happen after they are gone, and being assured that what they want will be implemented by creating an estate plan can be reassuring.
Estate planning is essential and can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. A competent and experienced estate planning attorney can make the process informative, understandable, and reassuring.