At some point, you’ll want to share your estate plans with your loved ones — and the first step in this process may be to hold a family meeting.
The best time to hold this meeting is when you’re still in good mental and physical shape, and the enactment of your estate plans may well be years away. But what topics should you cover?
Consider these main areas: • Your wishes — and those of your family. Use this meeting to introduce your estate plans and, in a basic sense, what you hope to accomplish with them ¬— leave money to your family, support charitable groups and so on. You’ll want to emphasize that you want to be equitable in what you leave behind, but there may be issues that affect this decision, such as disparities in income between grown children or an allowance for a special- needs child. But you’ll also want to listen to what your family members want — and you might be surprised at what they tell you.
