NEW YORK (The Street) -- Some 56% of American parents have a will or living trust document, according to a new Caring.com survey, but 52% of adult children don’t know where their parents store their estate planning documents. That can jeopardize the appropriate allocation of assets to heirs."Being uninformed about documents or worse, not having them at all, can wreak havoc on a family’s emotional and financial well-being," said Andy Cohen, CEO of Caring.com.
That’s because incapacitation can happen over night or gradually overtime due to Alzheimer's, dementia or sudden disability.
"Accidents happen and illnesses befall us with little or no forewarning," said Martha Laham, author of The Con Game: A Failure of Trust (Lulu Publishing, 2014). "An aging parent should furnish formal instructions to loved ones to make surrogate decisions. If not, family members could be left in a quandary, which could lead to arguments or uncertainty over how best to handle a particular situation."
"Accidents happen and illnesses befall us with little or no forewarning," said Martha Laham, author of The Con Game: A Failure of Trust (Lulu Publishing, 2014). "An aging parent should furnish formal instructions to loved ones to make surrogate decisions. If not, family members could be left in a quandary, which could lead to arguments or uncertainty over how best to handle a particular situation." (Continue Reading)
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Show Your Kids Your Will if You Want Them to Inherit Your Wealth