Leaving An Inheritance Is Overrated
Imagining what your children will do with the money they inherit from you is more an exercise in wishful thinking than a concrete plan for most people. Most retirees do not have any savings left when they die, and what assets they do have disappear during probate as Medicaid and other creditors come to collect the decedent’s outstanding debts from the estate. Consider that many retirees never had retirement savings to begin with; they simply retired when their old bones were too tired to go to work anymore, and they have been scraping by on their meager Social Security benefits ever since. Even if you have saved so much money that your younger self would have considered you wealthy, you will either spend most of it enjoying many years of good health, or you will spend it on medical and long-term care expenses if your health is not so good. Assuming that you have more money saved than you can possibly spend in a lifetime, leaving it to your children as an inheritance might not be the most beneficial thing you can do with it. For help deciding what to do with your retirement savings, if you have them, or making do without them, if you don’t, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.
Not Depending On Your Children Financially Is the Cornerstone of Generational Wealth
The biggest motivation for leaving your children an inheritance is to create generational wealth, but what most people forget is that inheritance money is only the icing on the cake. The biggest driver of generational wealth is parents not depending on their children financially. Instead of stashing away your money so that your children can inherit it from you after you die, it would be a better idea to buy long-term care insurance or a hybrid life insurance policy, so that you will not use up all your savings and some of your children’s earnings paying for your care. Retired elder law attorney Orrin Onken eloquently pointed out that you build more generational wealth by moving to assisted living while letting your middle-aged children kick butt at their careers than you do by having them scale back their employment income to be your full-time caregivers.
What Should You Do If You Genuinely Have More Money Than You Need?
If you think you have more money than you could ever conceivably spend on yourself, run your calculations again to be sure. If you are, in fact, loaded, there are more beneficial outlets for your money than inheritance. Create family memories by going all out for the holidays or paying for everyone’s travel tickets for a family reunion. Give cash gifts to your children to keep them from sinking deeper into debt and to keep their hopes alive for building generational wealth.
Contact Gierach and Gierach About Not Leaving an Inheritance
An estate planning lawyer can help you find better things to do than worry about how much money your children will inherit from you. Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
kiplinger.com/retirement/estate-planning/holding-wealth-why-retirees-shouldnt-focus-on-leaving-an-inheritance#:~:text=The%20reality%20is%20that%20leaving,your%20heirs%20with%20less%20money.
