Communicating with family members about wealth is essential to prepare fiduciaries to manage and assist you, and your heirs to inherit your wealth. An integral part of every family’s planning should be opening the channels of communication with children and other heirs and loved ones about financial matters, wealth, charitable giving, and other vital goals.Martin M. Shenkman, Laweasy.com, Making trust and estate law easy.
In recent years, America, as well as other countries, has become increasingly wealthier. However, there is a 70% failure rate with regard to transferring estates. Most of the failure is due to a lack of communication within the family that leads to mismanagement of money, lawsuits, etc.
A practical precursor to a “family meeting” is an executive board meeting, with the husband and wife, and their advisors, accountant, attorney, financial planner, wealth manager, etc. If you cannot afford such a meeting, meet with only your accountant or wealth manager and have him put everyone else on a conference call, to minimize time.
After this precursory meeting, bring your heirs to a meeting so that they can establish a relationship with the advisors. You can also explain to your heirs certain decisions you have made, such as why one child is inheriting more than another child.