Nine Ways Your Estate Plan Could Breed Conflict

Just as spending a day under the summer sun without proper protection can leave you with a painful sunburn, an unfinished or out-of-date estate plan can inflict harm on you and your loved ones. In this article, I will explore the importance of creating a comprehensive estate plan to protect your legacy and ensure a smooth transition to future generations.

What Is Your Relationship with Your Parents?

Your relationship with your parents and with your own children is important for several reasons, including developing an effective estate plan. Simply maintaining a loving relationship with a parent does not necessarily guarantee inheritance rights. A legal right to inherit depends largely on the legal relationship between a child and that child’s parent, the existence of a valid estate plan, or if no estate plan exists, the applicable laws of intestacy in a given jurisdiction. Generally, children can inherit from their parents whether their parents are biological or adoptive, but in most jurisdictions, there is no legal right for a child to inherit unless they are a minor or it can be shown that they were accidentally left out of a parent’s estate plan. In Florida, without an estate plan, it is said you’ve died “intestate” and the Florida Statute must be followed to determine who will inherit from your estate.