CHAPTER 9 Should You Tell Your Children about Your Living Trust? Or, Don’t Dismiss the Chance to Have a Family Inheritance Meeting—Especially If the Lawyer Won’t Charge You
Your Living Trust is a private document. There is no legal obligation thrust upon you to share its contents with anyone. After you bring it home, you can store it under lock and key and hide it from the world. And if you are like most of my clients, your first instinct will be to do just that. As you place it in your safe-deposit box, you mutter aloud (perhaps with glee) that your children will never see this document as long as you are alive.
But as your Living Trust advisor, I advise you to run against that instinct. In fact, I want you to do a 180-degree turn. I not only want you to inform your children about your Living Trust, I want you to tell your children the size of their expected inheritance!
Are you appalled and shocked at this advice? You may very well be. Of course, you may be the rare breed that considers yourself an open book when it comes to family money matters. Most likely, however, either the thought of disclosing inheritance information to your children has never entered your mind, or you have dismissed it out of hand at its mere suggestion.
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