For those who don't have kids, who or what has been named beneficiaries in your estate planning? DH and I disagree on on this, and I'm curious to know what others decided.
Currently our beneficiaries are my cousin and H’s brother. Both have medical conditions that will require lifelong care and they’ll never be financially independent. If neither of them outlives us, we will probably set up a planned gift to a scholarship fund at our alma mater. Or if we end up being close to a (great) niece or nephew, maybe we’ll leave it all to them.
We have no children and only one sibling (who does not have any children). 70% of our assets are split between close relatives (with the highest percentage going to the one sibling) and 30% is allocated across a few charities. If someone predeceases us, their inheritance portion goes to the charities.
Before we had kids, a bunch was going to our nieces and nephews to be split equally and a bunch to various charities and scholarships via a foundation that would have been created with the money.
My sister gets our vacation house. My two nieces and great niece get everything else. All the nieces are essentially like our kids. We are a small, close family.
Post by heliocentric on Nov 28, 2018 20:03:59 GMT -5
If we die before my parents they will get everything. Otherwise we left a small percentage to a niece and 2 nephews on DH’s side and the majority to charity. We’re not super close to family and feel it would do more good through charity.
We have no kids. Our beneficeries are siblings and nieces and nephews and charities. All the nieces and nephews get a flat amount. The balance is split between charities and siblings. Charities get half and our 4 sibs get the other half. We have it set up such that if one sib dies, the balance between the sibs is readjusted rather than going to the estate of the sib.
We don't have kids. I wrote a will to prevent brother from getting anything, beyond that the choices are easy. My parents (mom and step dad) get 50% and DHs siblings (his parents are dead) get 50%. If anything happens to my parents it all goes to his sisters. If anything happens to his sisters we would pass it down to nieces and nephews on that side.
I also found it important to make end of life decisions and put them in writing and talk about it with DH and our families.
Prior to having kids, our assets would have gone to our respective siblings. My retirement to my brother, his retirement to his brother, and joint assets split between the brothers.
My lifelong bachelor uncle passed away this summer, and he left investments/cash to his surviving sister (he had 4 siblings, only 1 of whom was still living at the time of his death), and his house/material possessions to his oldest niece (my cousin). I'm one of 14 cousins, so it would have been too difficult to split/share.
Both of my child free uncles have everything going to charity. At least that's what my dad and I have been told.
My sister and I are the only grandkids on both sides, so I'm preparing myself for a call one day as the only living family after my parents pass (they're also the oldest of their siblings).
Post by mrsukyankee on Nov 30, 2018 8:50:05 GMT -5
We have no kids. Our first beneficiary would be my mother-in-law as she has no one else around to support her and so she'd need the money/house/etc if we were to die before she did. If my MIL passes first, we'll change the will to benefit my brother, SIL and their kids with the codicil that they also look out for our parents if there is a need.
We don't have a will, or really an "estate" to speak of (we rent, though I guess our car and our stuff would go to someone- I assume my parents by default? IDK? None if it is worth much for resale, probably less than 10k if we're being generous).
On my life insurance and on my 403b, I have my parents listed. I actually don't think my H listed anyone other than me on his life insurance, but I assume if we die together and I have designated my parents as my beneficiary, maybe they'd get his money too? I guess we should think about that.
I haven't though of it much beyond that. My parents are generous and reasonable people so I assume that they'd use the money to take care of cremation/funeral costs, tie up loose ends, and then do something nice with the rest - probably give some to my sisters and/or their kids. To be perfectly frank, I don't really care. I don't have any things to give away that I have an emotional tie with, and I trust my parents so whatever they choose to do with the money is fine with me.
I suppose one of these days we should put some wishes in writing. Ugh.
Post by hurricanedrunk on Nov 30, 2018 12:46:25 GMT -5
We don't have kids. Right now most of our stuff is set up to go to my parents or our siblings respectively after each other first of course. At this point we don't have a will which we probably should get on top of.
I am single, have no kids and no siblings. Right now if anything were to happen it is going to my parents. After them, it goes to my cousin. She had a baby yesterday and after things settle down, I may change it to the baby. I am not sure. I hope to get married and have kids, but for now this is how things are set up.
My life insurance is set so it gets split between my brothers. Same thing with my 401k.
I guess I haven't thought about our house. I suppose that's something we should talk about eventually. Anyone we would want to will it to lives in Michigan, so that would be a PITA for them to deal with. I also have an investment property I need to think about.
I'm single with no kids. Right now, I don't have a will (I know, I know, I need to get on that). However, anything with a beneficiary, like my IRA, is set up to split between my mother and stepmother. When/if each of them has passed, I'll reconfigure things to split between my brother, sister (who really needs the $$), and my niece (sister's daughter). And charity. I have worked out the percentages, though.
50% goes to our surviving parents and the rest goes to 4 nieces & 1 nephew. At some point after the nieces & nephews are grown up and done with college/settled in life, I might change it to go to charities.
We don't have kids. We are essentially willing everything to my sister and DH's sister 50/50. I have a brother (who is unmarried and doesn't have kids) I don't get along with that is not in our trust/will, and DH and his sister have three much younger half siblings they don't have relationships with who are also not in our trust/will.
If we outlive our sisters, everything will be split equally between our six nieces and nephews.