Why You Should Keep Surprises Out of Your Estate Plan

I admit I enjoy a bit of mischievous thrill in surprising people. Lots of folks do. But one place surprises do not belong is in your estate plan. Not only is it important to let key folks know where you store your estate planning documents (as I discussed in a previous post), but it can be equally important to communicate important facts about their contents to avoid unpleasant surprises. There may be good reasons to have a form of the “quiet conversation” with the folks who are nominated as fiduciaries in your estate planning documents, family members who may expect an inheritance, and those who will actually receive one from you. Communicating the contents of your Will to your Personal Representative and/or beneficiaries can help avoid surprises about the distribution of your estate when the time comes. However, this communication should be handled with care.

In both popular culture and real life, instances of communicating a Will’s contents for spiteful, or sometimes just clueless purposes, persist. In one irreverent example, an episode of the hilariously crude and delightfully slapstick series “Broad City” featured one character (Ilana) commemorating her 23rd birthday by writing her Will as a sign of her newfound maturity brought on by her “advanced” age. She reveals this by brandishing a handwritten Will and declaring its contents to her cohort (Abbi) while walking through St. Mark’s Place in New York City. Making a Will is a signifier of maturity. However, the manner in which Ilana handles the Will itself, failing to properly execute it, much less secure it, serves to demonstrate Ilana’s persisting immaturity.

In a more sobering real-life example, this New York Times article describes how Sumner Redstone, head honcho of media behemoth Viacom, is in his 90s, in ill health, and embroiled in a series of lawsuits involving his personal life. He has disinherited his daughter and intends to leave most of his considerable estate to charity. Redstone has named Viacom executives in his Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions to make health care decisions on his behalf before his daughter. And he was sued by a former romantic partner for removing her authority to make health care decisions on his behalf. (On May 9, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed the case following  a single day of testimony.) To his credit, Redstone had communicated very clearly – and publicly – that his daughter should have no expectation of any inheritance from his estate.

While both examples demonstrate extreme behavior, they do hold lessons for real people leading real lives. Communicating the contents of a Will can avoid conflict among surprised family members who failed to inherit as expected, or who believe that they have been treated “unfairly.” However, once those lines of communication have been opened, it is important to keep them open. Failing to do so can cause an unpleasant surprise for beneficiaries if a Will is subsequently revoked and replaced with one containing a different disposition scheme.

Photo credit: Chip Griffin on Flickr