Will your estate be divided equally or will those already well o

Well, I can give my daughter and her husband, up to $13,000 EACH every year and there is no tax, on either them or me.

I just remember when my mom died, getting $$$ that I REALLY could have used in dribs and drabs over the decades. Would have made my life, and my daughter's a wee bit better along the way.

Mon

My parents are very intent upon equal division - occasionally, they have gifted us kids (4) at different times, kitchen cabinets, money for surgery, etc. Then they rewrite the will to reflect the running totals each child has received.

My dad grew up the middle of 3 - and knows what it feels like to be left out. When both your sibs get birthday cake & a present on their birthdays, and you don't get either on yours...

We'll do equal splits here, when our turn comes.

Unequally for now. We have 5 married kids and one still at home. The one still at home gets a bigger share - or rather, the ones designated to take him in - get a larger share to cover the costs of raising him. Once he is through college, etc, it will revert to equal shares. The math shouldn't be too hard for them to do, since we don't plan on leaving much behind.

The wife and I both have wills, if I go first she gets everything and vice versa. If we go together the estate gets liquidated and the 5 kids get 1/5 each. Two of my kids are blood and 3 are step kids but I raised them all and I would sure not want to leave a legacy of rancor or hurt.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

My parents estate is going to my alma mater as is mine. Leaving estates to universities eliminates a load of squabbling after your feed for the worms.

My father decided that was the best solution after my older brother went out on his path but always pestered him about what they were going to leave him when they croaked whenever he called and I graduated and started building my own life.

As he pointed out to me all he had when he started out was an education and a goal and he started me out with an education and the goal to build something of my own.

As I got older I understood that an education and the desire of a goal is the only legacy we need to pass on and giving what we acquire for pleasure and creature comfort during the pursuit of our ultimate goals to the educational institution of our choice gives extra strength to the education aspect of the legacy we pass on.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Upon death --- Equally amongst our 5 children, or their surviving children if they are deceased.

In the present, we try to give equally ---- either amongst the 5 kids, or equally amongst the 15 grandchildren.

We don't follow it to the dollar with the grandchildren.
They all get the same on birthday and Christmas gifts ---- but then some many get extra for school tuition or a basketball camp or such.

Biological, adopted and step-grandchildren are pretty much all treated the same.

I agree that 'fairly' doesn't always mean 'equally'.

My parents always bent over backwards to make things "equal" - I remember my mother counting jelly beans at Easter to be sure no one got more or less. Now that my parents are in their mid-eighties, my brother who lives near them is over there at least once a week to help with with whatever needs to be done, while I get back there maybe once or twice a year to visit. I've told my mother that I don't want nor expect "equal".

Has to be equal,unless you like family war.

Our "estate" consists of a means to make a living. At some point, our children will have to decide how they wish to make their living. The estate will be divided fairly, but may not be equally, depending on whether either child or both decide to make a living here, or in some other profession.

My father left me a specific bequest of one thousand dollars that he didn't leave to my other siblings. I think I know his intention, but I could hear the hurt in my brother's voice as he, the executor, told me about it.

I immediately had it included with the rest of the estate to be divided equally. No amount of money would have been worth bad feelings between myself and my siblings.

My husband and I will divide our estate equally among our children, except that each grandchild will get an equal specific bequest.

It is difficult to make a judgement of fairness that is not equal. What a parent sees as fair is not the same as what a child sees as fair. It never has been .

No kids, but it wouldn't surprise me if a couple of my sibs think I will gift their children or grandchildren generously. I already have plans for my money, and that's not it. I will hand on some family stuff my mother gave me, with wording that it not be sold. They don't want it, they need to give it to another family member.

I am leaving my entire estate to my Yvonne... who has instructions to see to it that whichever grand kid has brains enough to accumulate their own wealth end up with it and add to it. We have both worked too hard building what we have to see any of our kids squander it which is exactly what they would do if it were divided equally among them.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

equal. half for each in monies, half for each after property is sold. neither wants our property, so that's the way to go. doesn't matter who has more now....what we have will be divided equally between the two.

Equally here. I hope they do as my MIL did when her folks passed. There were two living children - everything was split down the middle until the last penny. She took the extra penny since she was the executor of The Will......was a family joke for years. Not a bit of bickering between the two of them.

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Jen
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Well i'v just decided not to go I feel like you wife has three that could spend fort Knox in a day and be broke tomorrow . My son could buy the Jones and run them out of town and is tighter than the bark on a Hickory tree .
On the other hand once we are gone if they can't manage that is their tough luck .

My Uncle just passed with no will the estate will be divided eight ways and two of them will blow it in one day . Sad Uncle stashed every nickle he could .He had no children just nieces and nephews

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Well, ours will be divided equally, with input from our 2 kids. That is both the farm and all the personal property. Been through the mill with my mothers parents, who didn't divide theirs equally and my mother was on the loosing end. Been through the mill with my parents, who always insisted everything be equal between my sister and I, but hten came up with a very convoluted explanation of how it was equal to give my sister their farm and everything on it, including house, sheds, barns and equipment, while I got 10 acres of mountainside that is adjacent to my farm. Funny thing is, my sister who got almost everything no longer speaks to me, because I told my parents it wasn't fair to my kids for them to give their whole farm to my sister, who will pass it to her kids eventually.

There's currently a $5 million exemption on the federal estate tax, so that's not an issue for most people. Giving before you die brings gift taxes into the mix. The exemption is $13K/year (per giver, per receiver) with a lifetime cap of $5 million, and any gifts given during life reduce your estate tax exemption by that amount. So before or after death, the taxes are even for most people. There are a few strategies to lower the taxes, but if your estate is less than $5 million, you pay nothing anyway.

I don't have children and don't intend to, so the part of my estate that isn't going to charities will go to my parents if I die before them, or divided equally among my brothers if my parents die first.

Sorry but if we died tomorrow everything is paid for so the three sons can divide it equally. I do want ($6,000) of the insurance cash to be set aside for my two grandsons first car, used of course, at the completion of drivers education and age 16. I want another ($1,000) of the insurance cash to be given to each one upon graduation from high school. If you don't graduate high school by age 19 then the money goes to purchase jackets for the men at the Veterans Shelter locally.

Well, I can see THAT being fair. My Father on the other hand saw things a different way.

My Mother died when I was 22. Within 3 months, my Dad was dating a woman whom he later married. This woman had 2 grown kids of her own, so there was no "raising" them.

Step-Mother died and then my Dad died. Several years before his death, he "sold" my Grandparents 100 acre farm to the one Step-sister. When I say "sold" it was given to them and agreed upon his death each of us blood kids would each get 1/4 of the agreed upon price of $30,000.00. Meaning each of us 4 blood kids got $7500.00. For a farm that our Great Grandparents had farmed on and my Grandmother had grown up on!

The rest of my Dad's estate was split evenly among us 6 - blood kids and Step kids alike. Even the 40 acre property that my Dad and Mom lived on once they got married.

Be careful - those out there with "blended" families of blood kids and Step kids! Your thinking of "fair" might not be the same "fair" your blood kids agree with.

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

Well darn, forgot to have kids and I am an only child. Oh well, too bad, too sad.... Have to leave my vast wealth to my 13 cats. Hopefully they wont spend it all on a can of tuna fish!

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