Reply to Why should parents split their estates down the middle?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think it is the default because it isn't something most people want to create more problems between your grown children after they're gone.

Now, if parents want to split it differently, they are certainly entitled to. But I think the responsible thing to do is to tell them ahead of time how you're splitting it rather than leaving it as a surprise to find in their will. I generally think people need to have more discussion and documentation of their end-of-life wishes, but especially if you are structuring it in a way that isn't the standard. It causes so many hurt feelings between the living if it comes as a surprise during a time of grief.

More than half of Americans die without a will. So in those cases, things get split equally between heirs just by default. And then I'm sure in a large amount of wills, stuff is also split equally. It being split differently is relatively rare, and therefore a surprise to people - it's not a reach to think that it will cause strife and fighting between siblings, especially if they haven't had good relationships leading up to that.

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