In the event that you have more than one child, you are likely aware that the boilerplate advice is to divide your estate as evenly as possible between them. After all, serious family rifts as a result of unfair estate distribution (or distribution a beneficiary perceives as unfair) are not an uncommon occurrence.
Even though most Americans do not wish for their estate to cause lingering family drama, more and more individuals are choosing to divide their estates in an unequal manner. According to Considerable, factors driving this decision include an adult child’s involvement in elder care and the livelihoods of adult children.
Elder care
Fully two-thirds of Americans believe that in certain situations splitting the estate unevenly is the right decision. Many Americans believe that if one adult child is more involved in elder care than others, that adult child should get a larger slice of the estate plan pie.
In addition to elder care, many Americans will leave the adult child acting as the personal representative (or executor) of the deceased parents’ estate more money. This is because of the amount of time and effort this role takes.
Adult children and jobs
Many Americans divide their estate unequally based upon the general income of their children. For example, if there is one child who works as a banker and another child who works as a public school teacher, it is likely that the banker has a much higher salary than the public school teacher. In this situation, some Americans would leave the public school teacher more money than the banker.