Some local residents believe that they do not need to worry about creating a New York estate plan if they only want to divide all of their assets between their children equally. These community members are under the incorrect assumption that the default legal rules will ensure that everything works out as they wish. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case.
This weekend My SA News discussed this all-too-common mistake of voicing intent to be even-handed with asset distribution but not taking the proper legal steps to carry out that intent. For example, the story used the real example of a family with two parents and five daughters. Both parents had been married to one another their entire lives with no divorces. They did not conduct any estate planning because they always explained that they wanted everything to be divided equally among their children at their death. They did not even have wills drafted.
However, their actions did not reflect that voiced intention, and there was no plan in place to protect the family. For example, after the father died, the mother deeded the family home to the first sister. Later, a second sister deeded another house to the mother, but upon the mother’s death that sister wanted the home back. A third sister visited an attorney and asked for help. She wanted the family home and the second home to be divided equally among the children as the parents always wished.