The Generous Aunt’s Dilemma

You are proud of the many roles you play in life, as a professional mentor, a cat mom, and a well-traveled and well-read person. People are impressed with your credentials, your resourcefulness, and your repeated triumphs over adversity, but the title of which you are the proudest is “cool aunt.” You have worn this title since your oldest niece was born when you had only recently crossed the threshold into adulthood. Your liminal position between two generations has always given you a special place in your family. You never really fit in with any age cohort in your family, and now that you are the last one remaining of your parents’ children, you find yourself in another liminal position, a matriarch who is not a matriarch. Ever a practical person, you have been contemplating your estate plan since the first gray hairs appeared on your head. It makes more sense to you to leave your property to your nieces and nephews than to your found family, since generational wealth promotes family togetherness, and found family is about appreciating that some things in life are more important than money. Once you start drafting your will, what once seemed simple is anything but. For help providing for your nieces and nephews in your estate plan, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.

If Your Nieces and Nephews Are Going to Inherit From You, Anyway, Do You Even Need a Will?

Intestate succession is when the probate court settles the estate of a person who died without a will. In this case, the heirs are the decedent’s closest surviving relatives. According to Maryland law, your spouse or children inherit your property if you are married or have children. If you are unmarried and do not have children, your siblings inherit your estate, but if your siblings predeceased you, then your nieces and nephews inherit. If nieces and nephews are your closest surviving relatives and you do not write a will, the probate court will divide your estate among them evenly.

Should You Leave Your Estate to Your Nieces and Nephews in Equal Shares, or Each According to His or Her Own Need?

Even if your chosen beneficiaries are the same ones who would inherit under intestate succession, it is still better to write a will. It is essential to write a will if you want your nieces and nephews to inherit unequal shares of your estate, or if you want to leave some of your property to your nieces and nephews and some of it to friends. It is best to leave property to your nieces and nephews in equal shares in your will, to avoid causing family conflict; if some of them need financial help, but others don’t, it is better to give cash gifts to the relatives in need while you are alive.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Your Cool Aunt Estate Plan

A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you plan to leave your estate to your nieces and nephews.  Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C.  in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

msn.com/en-us/news/other/i-have-no-kids-will-i-cause-family-drama-by-leaving-different-amounts-to-my-nieces-and-nephews/ar-AA274Ndv?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=6a47f359ce834954acbb51ce7c93842b&ei=41