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Family Harmony Estate Planning

Estate planning involves more than the investment, management and disposition of one’s worldly assets in the event of the owner’s disability and following death.  It also should include the preservation of the asset families normally value the most, family harmony.  Yet, this important estate planning aspect has traditionally been largely neglected in the estate planning process.  Indicative of this widespread neglect is the lack of estate planning seminars, textbooks, treatises, and articles which devote even a modest amount of attention to this issue.  Compounding the problem is that much of the “conventional wisdom” surrounding this issue is severely flawed, if not outright erroneous.  The failure of the estate planning legal profession to satisfactorily address this issue is a major reason why there is such a high frequency of disharmonious, if not outright adversarial, family situations not only following the death or disability of another family member, but also during the lifetimes of family members who either ill-advisedly or improperly communicate or disclose the elements of their estate plan to their descendants.     

The resultant loss of family harmony which is often thereby occasioned not only tends to endure for the lifetimes of affected family members, it can also distort the intended distribution of the estate and greatly increase estate and trust administration costs.  At Foulston Siefkin, we realize the importance of family harmony to the vast majority of our estate planning clients.  As a result, the Estate Planning and Probate Practice Group of Foulston Siefkin has been a regional and national leader in developing and implementing numerous family harmony strategies as a major focus of the estate planning process.  We welcome readers to download the Family Harmony Estate Planning summary prepared by Practice Group attorneys which has an additional link to a recent nationally disseminated article on this topic authored by a member of our Practice Group outlining specific family harmony estate planning strategies.  Readers are also invited to visit our Practice Group page for information on our Practice Group attorneys, estate planning services offered and useful information regarding other important aspects of the estate planning process.

Downloads

• Family Harmony Estate Planning summary (PDF)

Related Areas

• Estate Planning and Probate
• Elder Law

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