Values play a significant role in estate planning.

Estate planning is more than a means of distributing material possessions and assets.

Much more.

In fact, it is shaped by family values and is a means of passing these along to loved ones.

While life is filled with opportunities to teach and instill wisdom, estate planning allows you one more opportunity to share personal beliefs and life lessons with the next generation.

Estate planning is one tool for promoting family values in the next generation.

Why Is Sharing Family Stories Important?

Stories have been central to cultures throughout time and over the entire globe.

Passing along family stories involves more than simply remembering.

These histories are foundational to family identity.

According to Professor Elizabeth Keating from the University of Texas, asking poignant questions encourages telling these important stories.

By listening to the experiences of your parents and grandparents, you can better understand their guiding principles.

These family values will play a key role in estate planning.

If you desire to promote hard work and education, you can include provisions to encourage and incentivize these traits.

Trusts are beneficial in structuring inheritances in this way.

Can You Use a Trust to Promote Your Values?

With a trust, you can have greater control over the distribution of your assets, making it easier to incorporate your values.

You can use a trust to outline conditions for the timing and use of asset distributions.

Encouraging Education:

If you want to encourage a college education, you can stipulate the use of the trust to provide tuition and other educational expenses.

Promoting Work Ethic:

You can provide funds to start a business if you prefer to facilitate entrepreneurship.

You can tie asset distributions to employment status or income level to encourage employment.

We have even helped our clients encourage work, especially when employment may result in "under-employment" due to market conditions, by tying trust distributions to actual W-2 earnings.

Supporting Healthy Lifestyles:

You can encourage healthy and discourage harmful behaviors by incentivizing good health or requiring periodic drug testing.

Fostering Philanthropy:

You can use a trust to donate portions to charity or to establish a charitable foundation.

What Role Do Family Conversations Play in Estate Planning?

According to a Kiplinger article titled "In Estate Planning, Your Values Can Play a Key Role," families should have conversations about estate planning wishes and values.

Why?

When loved ones understand the reasons behind the estate planning choices, they are less likely to challenge the estate and have conflict with each other.

It also allows you to share stories and strengthen connections with your progeny.

How Can Estate Planning Reflect Your Faith and Beliefs?

For many, faith is integral to their daily lives.

Your beliefs can be incorporated into your estate plan through funding mission trips, supporting religious organizations, and promoting charitable giving.

You can even include a statement of purpose in your trust to remind your heirs about your motivations and provide guidance for continuing to live these values.

Create an Estate Plan that Reflects Your Values

Estate planning involves more than distributing property.

You can use your estate plan to share the intangible wealth of family values with future generations.

Request a consultation today if you want to create an estate plan to preserve and promote your family values and legacy.

What are Key Takeaways Regarding Family Values?

Estate planning is a means of passing down family values and faith to future generations, with trusts being particularly suited to this purpose.

When creating an estate plan, it is most helpful to share your reasoning with your loved ones so they can appreciate your choices and avoid conflict related to misunderstandings.

Working with an experienced estate planning attorney allows you to effectively create a comprehensive estate plan in alignment with your values.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. You should contact an attorney for advice concerning any particular issue or problem. Nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship between Harvest Law KC and the reader.

References: The University of Texas (Nov. 10, 2022) "Faculty Publication: The Essential Questions: Interview Your Family to Uncover Stories and Bridge Generations by Elizabeth Keating" and Kiplinger (Jun. 27, 2023) "In Estate Planning, Your Values Can Play a Key Role | Kiplinger"