Estate planning attorneys can provide you with help as you make important decisions about what you want your legacy to be. Some of the most important decisions that you will need to make are often centered around who you should leave your wealth to and how you should transfer your assets to best protect your property and to provide for your heirs. 
Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can provide the advice that you need on the effective transfer of assets. We can help you to use tools like a last will and testament, trusts, pay-on-death accounts, and joint ownership in order to transfer wealth to loved ones quickly and effectively while keeping costs minimal.
We can also provide you with advice and insight as you make difficult choices about how to distribute an inheritance. Give us a call today to find out more about how our estate planning attorneys can help you.
When is it Unfair to Leave Equal Shares of Your Estate?
When you are considering how to structure an inheritance, you’ll need to decide if you want to provide an equal inheritance to all of the parties within a particular category. For example, you’ll have to decide if you want to leave the same amount of money to all of your children or to all of your siblings.
While many people default to assuming that providing an equal inheritance is fair, it’s important to think about all of the circumstances associated with each heir or beneficiary’s circumstances if you want to ensure that you are truly equitable.
For example, if you have two children and you have already paid $100,000 for one child to go to college and the other child is not yet college aged, leaving each of your children the same amount of money may not necessarily be the fairest or most equitable way to distribute an inheritance.
If you left the same amount of money to each of your children, the child who still has to pay for his or her own schooling would end up spending a large part of the inheritance on the costs of college while the other child whose education you have funded would be able to use his inheritance for other purposes.
This is just one of many examples that illustrates why it is so important to look at the big picture when you decide how to structure an inheritance. While of course there’s no reason you have to divide your inheritance equally and you have total control over what you want your legacy to be, it pays to consider lots of different factors as you decide on the best course of action.
In the example above with your two children, for example, you might want to put aside $100,000 into a trust that is specifically earmarked to pay for the education of the child who has not yet attended college. You could then divide the remainder of your wealth up equally among your two children so they would each get an inheritance that is truly equal.
This would allow you to ensure that the money in the trust is used only for its intended purpose of funding your child’s education so he was on the same footing as his sibling. If the child decided not to attend school, you could specify that the money be divided equally among the two kids or used for some other purpose.
Getting Help from Estate Planning Attorneys
Estate planning attorneys at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates help you with the practical and technical aspects of creating an estate plan so you can focus your attention on deciding what distribution of assets is fair to your heirs or beneficiaries. We can work with you to ensure that your wealth is protected and to maximize the chances of your assets transferring quickly and cost-effectively in accordance with your wishes.
To find out more about how our compassionate and knowledgeable legal team can help you with the estate planning process and with taking steps to provide for the people you love, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online at any time to start making your personalized estate plan.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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