Leaving estate to charity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why anyone here is insisting that OP should be leaving this money to family instead of to charities. Why do you care? Or do you all just happen to have wealthy childless aunts and uncles and think you might be the nieces and nephews who stand to miss out?

Blood is thicker than water.

Many of us are skeptical of quite a few charities. PPs made good observations about how charities are often wasteful with money, don't use it for what it's earmarked for, or ideologies change to become quite different.

Thirty years ago the right wing convinced Americans that social programs should be delivered via charity rather than the government. Now the right wing is convincing us that charities can't be trusted either. It's really just about concentrating wealth in the hands of the few.

I think you have issues. People who drag politics and their bigoted ideology into every thread tend to.

Agree that blood is thicker than water, meaning people typically derive greater satisfaction helping out family members rather than strangers via charities.

Doesn't mean OP should be obliged to leave estate to family but many charities are quasi frauds, especially the progressive ones, so she should be careful if goal is for her money to have a meaningful impact.

Also, when OP is old, it is always nice to have family helping out in final years rather than strangers. She may want to try to cultivate this kind of relationship.

Would be great if OP's family would help out OP just because they're family, not because they think they're going to get a bequest out of it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm leaving it to my two nieces.

I've seen too many situations where charities do not support the donor's wishes.

This. It happens all the time.

Many will sue the other beneficiaries as a matter of course to see if they can get more. The one I worked for had an in house council whose job it was to do this.

Yes, this is so true. Charities and nonprofits can be super greedy. One of my family members estates had their will contested by a church who tried to steal our families money. Their attorney was suggesting that the church should get 100% of the estate due to a legal technicality.

[Anonymous]

My husbands aunt and uncle did this. Left everything to a university for “scholarships.” Not even in their name, just money swept up by a rich university with all trace of the donors gone.

Meanwhile their niece and two nephews were working their butts off struggling to pay their way through school.

It always seemed like a dick move to give strangers scholarship money but not give a dime for school to family members who loved you and did for you in your old age.

[Anonymous]

My very well- to-do brother (no children) already informed me that his entire estate will go to a nonprofit charity when he dies. I was a little surprised that he told me. It kind of came off as "don't expect to get anything" when I never really was not expecting to get anything anyway. In fact I had never even thought about it. It made me feel like he thought I was expecting money when I wasn't. It was just weird.

OP, do not talk about your intentions for your money with your family. They don't care as much as you think they care.

[Anonymous]

*never really was expecting

[Anonymous]

Family before charities or non profits organizations. Always.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family before charities or non profits organizations. Always.

Sort of up the OP here though, I don’t see what the problem is if they want to leave their money to a charity instead of their family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husbands aunt and uncle did this. Left everything to a university for “scholarships.” Not even in their name, just money swept up by a rich university with all trace of the donors gone.

Meanwhile their niece and two nephews were working their butts off struggling to pay their way through school.

It always seemed like a dick move to give strangers scholarship money but not give a dime for school to family members who loved you and did for you in your old age.

It is a dick move. I bet their family is cussing them every single day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got a $120k inheritance from a long lost uncle, and it paid off my kid's college fund. It was great, but totally unexpected and it was so thoughtful of him to even remotely think of us. I certainly didn't expect it and it would've been super awkward if he'd told me "you're not in my will." If he'd said to me "I'm leaving my money to X charity" that would've been no surprise to me either.

As it was, he left his "estate" to 4 of us and his life ins money to 3 of us. The will literally says "I am willfully and purposefully excluding Jane from the life ins portion of the money". It made things difficult on us as the "estate" was worth about $5k and the insurance was worth $360k.

Wait, what did Jane do wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family before charities or non profits organizations. Always.

Sort of up the OP here though, I don’t see what the problem is if they want to leave their money to a charity instead of their family.

It is their choice but thoughtless. These charities or non profits have bureaucracies of paid prof staff and overhead. I'm not interested in giving them $$$.

[Anonymous]

You are awful to your family. I hope you get the caretaking from them that you so rightfully deserve.