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Leaving an Inheritance
How to Provide for Your Grandchildren in Your Will By Sue Marquette Poremba
When my father-in-law died, we discovered that he included a provision in his will for the grandchildren who were alive at the time of his death. It was a generous and thoughtful gesture and fairly easy to dispense. As we closed his estate, we also found a life insurance policy that named his grandchildren as beneficiaries. That caused a bit more of a problem.
When my father-in-law set up the policy, he assumed he would be alive for many years, seeing he was in good health. But his sudden death in a car accident happened when his grandchildren were still minors. To release the life insurance payment, my husband and I had to get a court document stating we were the legal guardians of our children. I'm sure my father-in-law would have been angry about the red tape we had to cut through to finalize his estate.
Remembering grandchildren in a will is important to many grandparents, and, of course, each grandparent will have his or her own reason for why or how they bequeath a gift in their will. However, leaving part of an estate to a grandchild requires additional planning and considerations.
- Make sure your will specifies executors, guardians and trustees. Don't forget to get a living will, too (health care directive), to make sure loved ones know whether you want to be kept on artificial life support. Similarly, you should designate a power of attorney someone authorized to manage your affairs, typically financial ones, if you're not able to handle them yourself.
