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Home › Articles › Grandparent Finance › Leaving an Inheritance

Leaving an Inheritance

How to Provide for Your Grandchildren in Your Will

By Sue Marquette Poremba

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  • Pay it forward. Purchase adequate life insurance for yourself now to help your family avoid financial pitfalls later. Having the right amount of coverage will help ensure that the dreams you have for your family will be realized even if you're not there to witness them. Determining how much life insurance to buy can be complicated, so it often helps to seek assistance from an insurance agent or other financial advisor. Also, remember to periodically review the beneficiaries you name in your policies both personal and work because these can change due to death, divorce or other life-changing circumstances.
  • Make a list, and check it twice. Draft a document listing all key financial information (e.g., checking/savings/investment account numbers, mortgage, insurance, etc.), and specify where important non-financial information and valuables (e.g., birth/marriage certificates, titles/deeds for houses/cars, jewelry, safe deposit keys, etc.) are located. Don't forget to include contact information for all the professionals who help with your financial and legal affairs (e.g., insurance agent, attorney, accountant, etc.).
  • Rest in peace. Determine your final arrangements (e.g., burial or cremation, where you want to be buried, whether or not you want to be an organ donor, etc.), write them down and make them known to family and close friends.
    • Grandchildren Inheritances
    Nothing causes friction within a family like the division of a relative's estate. Even when there is a written will, there will be family members who believe they deserve particular items or a share in the inheritance money no matter what the deceased had decreed. That is why it's imperative that language in a will is clear and straightforward, particularly when it comes to grandchildren.

    The worst thing a grandparent can do is stipulate that a particular percentage of the estate goes to "my grandchildren." Does that include grandchildren who have yet to be born at the time of the grandparent's death, and, if so, does the executor hold on to the money until it is certain that the last grandchild has been born? If a grandchild has passed away before the grandparent, does that child's estate receive a share of the grandparent's estate?

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