As you make your estate plan, you may consider splitting everything up equally between your beneficiaries. Maybe you have four adult children, so you’re going to leave them all 25% ownership of the family home or the vacation cabin. Maybe you have $1 million in your investment portfolio, so you’re thinking of leaving $250,000 to each person.
It can make it easy to do things this way, and many people do. But remember that it isn’t legally required. You can also leave unequal bequests, and some research shows that this is becoming more and more common. You do not have to leave the same amount to everyone, and you can split up your estate plan any way that you see fit. If you want to, you could leave 100% to one beneficiary and nothing to anyone else.
The pros and cons of unequal bequests
There are both upsides and downsides to doing this. It can be positive when you have a specific reason why you want someone to receive more than the other beneficiaries. Maybe you know that one of your adult children has a greater financial need, for instance, or will be better at running the family business. You can leave them a larger financial gift or a greater ownership percentage than their siblings.
But this also does increase the odds of an estate dispute. It can cause conflicts between siblings who may feel that the estate plan is unfair. They may even accuse the person who receives a greater portion of the assets of using undue influence.
So, if you plan to leave unequal bequests, you need to be very clear about your intentions. Be sure you know what steps to take while making the estate plan.
