At its core estate planning is about uncomfortable questions.  No one really wants to think about end of life issues.  The topic of your parents, although it certainly can raise its fair share of tricky questions, is very important to the estate planning process.  In particular, discussing how your parents handled estate planning, how their lives have played out, can help get you thinking seriously about how your life might mirror or diverge from theirs.

Question: Have either of your parents remarried?  If so, what did you think about that?
Could the same happen to your spouse?  How did a remarriage affect the rest of your family?  It’s important to consider all possible scenarios when planning your estate and the example of your parents can be invaluable.

Question: Did your parents ever discuss their wealth or business in front of or with you?  Did they ever discuss estate planning?
If they did, how did that work out?  How old were you when these conversations happened.  Did they talk with you alone or as part of a larger family discussion?  Conversely, if they didn’t discuss their wealth or estate planning with you, how did that affect the administration of their estate later?  This is probably the best guide, the best example, for you to look toward when deciding how to handle conversations like these with your own children.

Question: What sort of relationship did you have with your parents?
This question is especially important if your relationship deteriorated, and if so the follow up question is: why?  In estate planning it pays to engage in hypothetical worst case scenarios.  If your relationship with your own children should follow the example of you and your parents, how should that affect your estate planning?

Question: How did your parents divide up their estate?
In Illinois if no admissible will exists, a decedent’s estate is divided up with half going to the spouse and the other half divided up equally among the children.  Plenty of people shape their estate different, of course.  The example of your parents can help you figure out how you’d like to plan for the division of your own estate.  Did you agree with how your parents split up their estate?  Did they ever explain their reasoning to you?

In addition to questions about your parents, similar questions about how your grandparents handled their estates can be quite enlightening.  For more information on estate planning and other estaate concerns, contact the Chicago Estate Lawyers at Horowitz & Weinstein.

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