The Lawyers Weekly - May 25, 2012

GREY MATTERS | PULL-OUT SUPPLEMENT
June 2012 | S7

Writing your will might seem like a relatively simple process, but the words you craft can be a delicate balancing act that may determine whether you are remembered fondly for your generosity or with bitterness for tearing your family apart.

No pressure there.

The trick is dividing up your assets among your children— and perhaps other relatives and friends—in such a way that ensures they are taken care of financially while simultaneously promoting harmony within your clan.

It’s never as straightforward as it could be because you’ve had different relationships with your beneficiaries over the years and they’ve all got different agendas.

So, how do you ensure the maximum benefit from your will with a minimum of grief? Experts agree having no surprises when your will is read upon your death—or as few as possible— will go a long way towards cementing a positive legacy.

That means communicating
with your children throughout
the process, as difficult and awk-
ward as that may be—nobody
likes confronting their own mor-
tality or that of their loved ones —
so any unforeseen issues can be
dealt with in the here and now.
(This gets considerably trickier in
the after-life.)

who used the following rule of
thumb—a dollar of iron is equal
to 50 cents of cash. That is, what-
ever the estimated value of his
business that he left to one child,
he would leave half that amount
in cash to the other child.
“[His reasoning was] the
one with the business assets
would have to sweat to
make it work for them and
take risks that they might
lose it all. The other child
who got the cash was on
easy street. It wasn’t equal
but in his mind, it was fair,”
he says.
“The family should know
beforehand exactly what the
parents’ wishes are. I’m a
great believer in transparency,
including with will planning. If
you have that, the risk that some-
body is completely unhappy with
things is greatly lessened.”
On the other hand, he warns,
keeping the details of a large
inheritance from a child with a
suspect work ethic may be the
best strategy to keep them on the
right career path.

Bob Hagerman, a Calgary-based partner at Gowlings LLP, is also big on communication, particularly if assets are going to be handed out unevenly.

“How you create harmony [as an advisor] is getting the parents to discuss it with the children and say: ‘We love you all equally but we’re going to make some different provisions for each child. We feel you have different needs and we want to help you out where we can,’ ” he says.

In some cases, Hagerman
adds, parents can make discreet
distributions to their children
in need without other family
members necessarily knowing
about it.

Estate Planning • Will & Trust Planning
Incapacity Planning • Trust & Estate Administration
Estate Litigation • Legal Opinion Work
Advice to Executors, Trustees & Beneficiaries