My husband’s grandfather set up well funded college accounts for ALL of his grandkids. That was very well appreciated by everyone…and that was a long time ago.
If we ever have grandkids, we will gift money to 529 accounts the parents set up. If we can.
I consider it liquid if you are at least 59.5 so no penalties for withdrawals.
My brother isn’t included in my parents will. Not a mention. I read on here in some other thread that they should mention him and make it clear that they are intentionally excluding him so he can’t claim that the accidentally forgot about him.
Yes that’s what my SIL was advised to do. She has half siblings somewhere, as well as the half brother she was raised with. She is skipping that generation completely (including us, which is fine) and she was advised to mention that specifically. Hope she did.
I’ve even heard you shold leave them a nominal amount so that it is CRYSTAL clear what was intended for the person.
Money from my grandparents helped pay for some of my college tuition. When my Dad’s business became successful one of the first things my parents did was set up college accounts for the grandchildren. Sadly, several of the grands did not end up going to college. Mine did and the money greatly expanded the options they had.
We were very lucky.
We are continuing this with our GD (and will for any future grands).
That happened here too…but the grandfather was clear that at age 25 or at college graduation…any balance left in these accounts went to the grandkids.
Not in my famiIly. The money was strictly for college. Pretty sure trade school would have been included but none chose that route.
Might not belong on this thread, but since this is about leaving kids money, I’ll ask.
H and I are going to receive an inheritance from our parents (he’s getting one from his mom and I am getting one from my parents). Unfortunately, it wasn’t set up to go to the grands directly.
We really would like to give most of this to our kids. I assume this would be an inheritance from us to them at this point, right? What would be the best way to set this up? We could give them money upto the gift limit for each year or perhaps set up a trust and move the money into that all in one go? If we did the trust, would they get it only after we were gone?
A no brainer would be to give each of them up to the gift tax limit every year if it’s a large pot of money (18K/person in 2024). So you could give them 36K and likely increase the amount every year without any planning at all. I realize that you mentioned that, but my point is how simple that would be.
We didn’t contribute to one kid’s wedding, that was their choice.
We are contributing to the other kid’s wedding.
So we will give that amount to kid1 in the form of a contribution to their child’s college.
There is no expectation at all. No grandparent gave any money for college. We did pay for our kids education and it was a huge financial burden but one we were happy to make.
If we can and have the funds, my husband and I have both talked about helping our grandchildren.
TBH, I’d much rather pay for education than a wedding.
This has been an interesting thread that has hi-lighted how generational wealth can affect outcomes. Neither my parents nor my in-laws went to college and definitely not my grandparents who some were immigrants. My parents and in-laws are the oldest of the baby boomers. All of whom came from larger families, so when my grandparents passed away there was not much to pass down. My kids never benefited contributions to 529 plans. Now there is some possible money to inherit for myself and wife, but a lot will depend on end of life care for my Mom and FIL who are the parents that are left.
My wife and I have always looked at it as trying to do better than our parents. We had major college loans, but were able to structure it where our kids didn’t have college loans. So they can start adult life in a better position than we did. We always just hoped each generation can do better than the previous one, but for that to be impactful it takes a long time.
The tough part was when could have used help during our lean years that wasn’t available.
We don’t have a plan based on reserving money for inheriting. i think the whole “do better than your parents” is more a media myth than an actuality for most families. But it would be nice to leave them something, for sure. My DiL is the beneficiary of my small pension, for example.
My mom is one of those very elderly ladies who will leave her favorite charities and her children an enormous amount of money, which will shock the charities since she seems to be a very middle middle class life. She and my Dad saved ruthlessly – but just to give it to us? I’d rather they had bought furniture every 20 years, or redid the kitchen so she could reach things. They staunchly believe giving their 8 grandchildren money will spoil them into irresponsibility; I get that, but we plan to share whatever I inherit with them, anyway.
Just be sure that the insurance policy you’ve been telling your kids about doesn’t lapse. Ask me how I know. And ask me how awkward it is for H and SIL every time their mom brings up the fact that they will collect on this $100,000 policy no matter how much she has to deplete her savings paying for end of life care. And ask me how I, who has the worst poker face ever, suddenly need to go to the restroom when MIL starts talking about it. She would be beyond upset if she knew that she & FIL dropped the ball on it. It can’t be fixed, so we aren’t going to add to her confusion.
Can you ask your parents to change and have them skip you. My friend asked her father to name each of her kids to get 25% of her share.
You should be able to disclaim all or a portion of the inheritance and have it pass directly to your children or into a trust set up on their behalf. That way it bypasses your estate and doesn’t count against your gift exemption for estate tax purposes. Your attorney would have to get it approved by the court. I disclaimed my late mother’s estate and passed it on to our kids.
I don’t think it’s a myth. But as people get more removed from their immigrant roots maybe it becomes less of a thing. The American Dream and leaving your kids better off than yourselves absolutely holds true for many of us.
My grandfather came from Mexico with a little sister and a father rapidly going blind. He spent one day in a schoolhouse, as the story goes. He married and had five boys who helped him worked the farm and all did better for themselves. My dad went through sixth grade so better than his dad. I am the only of my three siblings who went to college, though I started in a juco and transferred to a regional state university. My kids graduated debt-free from name-brand schools. Yep, each generation doing better than the one before. I suppose my kids’ legacy will be about wealth accumulation for their kids.
That seems even worse than mentioning that you thought about them and gave them nothing. It just seems hurtful. Like, “You won’t get a dime from me,” and the person gets a nickel or a penny. It’s a lot easier to think about not getting anything from someone rather than getting a tiny something as a remembrance of how little they wanted you to have.
I guess if one is going to exclude someone from one’s will, it’s best to say that Persons X, Y, and Z and their descendants are knowingly excluded from this will and are to receive nothing from my estate.
You can disclaim the inheritance; there are specific steps to follow and there is a 9 month time limit to do so.
I wonder if you can disclaim just a portion of it, for example, disclaim 50% of that and have it pass to your children. Or disclaim a specific part of it, like the IRA (so if you have kids with a lower tax rate, they can inherit it, opposed to you paying high taxes and then giving it to them).
I’m also curious if that is just disclaiming what is on a will, or if you can disclaim something that you’re a beneficiary on. Definitely worth the cost of talking to an estate attorney, I think.