If you have begun looking into the estate planning process for yourself, you might want to give some serious thought to talking about the subject with your parents. Most people never bother to create an estate plan, and while you won’t be around to know if your plans were successful or not, your efforts will affect your family. For those same reasons, knowing whether your parents have begun estate planning or not is important because you need to know what kind of problems you might have to deal with.
However, broaching the topic of estate planning with parents is often difficult to do. Many parents are very reluctant to talk about it, especially with their children. If you are having difficulty talking about the subject with your parents, here are some options you might want to try.
Talk about a news story.
Whether it’s tales of celebrities who died young or legal battles over a wealthy person’s estate, there are multiple news stories every year about legal problems that arise because people fail to have an adequate estate plan. Discussing such a story and using it as a chance to talk about your own plans can be helpful.
Lead by example.
One the most effective ways to inspire others to act is to do something yourself. If you have created your own estate plan, tell your parents that and explain why you chose to act. Whether you wanted to make sure your children were taken care of or didn’t want to leave a legal mess behind after you died, your own reasoning can often cause your parents to want to create their own plan.
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