You get to choose!

It’s not unusual for me to get a call from a man or woman, who wants to talk about Dad. The child, now grown up, is concerned about the parent’s final plans and wants to be sure that it’s done right. I like it when the adult children come for the planning meetings. This is a good thing. But sometimes the conversation goes a little astray. Sometimes I can see that the child has an ax to grind. It’s about more for him, or it’s about less for that worthless sister, or it’s about the loan that never was paid back from Dad’s nephew. Really when we get all done, it’s about wanting to be recognized as a good child, and loved for simply existing. It’s all in the normal range of how people behave.

My job is to remember that every one of us gets to leave our money exactly as we want to. We can leave it to the dog. We can leave it to the Church. We can be buried with it, if we like! And so my duty to the one signing the Will is pretty important. I can’t care how left out one of the children feels. I can only take care of the person who is signing that Will, and if they want to be buried with their art, so be it!

Recently I had to turn down a client, who wanted me to help his mother with her Will. She wanted to leave her house to her four children, but one was a drug addicted soul. One of the kids was going to get more…..which one do you think it was? Guess which of the kids brought her to see me? Yes, of course, it was the drug addicted son. I had to turn this client away. I couldn’t swear that she would sign the Will without subtle coercion from the son.

You get to make the decisions about your final choices. Not the kids, not the parents, not the doctor, not the lawyer. You get to do whatever you want. Just be sure that you do it. Otherwise, the state will do it for you!

Take a look at my book Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way! Think about the many choices you can make in preparing your documents.