Bay Area Estate And Tax Planning Law Firm

Estate disputes, retirement and a lack of savings

On Behalf of | Aug 20, 2019 | Uncategorized |

A lot of estate disputes are really financial matters. One child doesn’t get as much as another and disputes it. Another child doesn’t get as much as expected and disputes that. Still another doesn’t like that so much money went to charity and thinks it should have stayed in the family. Another wants to keep the family home when their siblings want to sell it.

In essence, people do not see eye-to-eye about money, and what they think, feel or know about that money is very important to them. They are willing to fight for that position in court, even if it means fighting with their siblings.

Retirement issues

Many different factors contribute to these complex situations, and every estate dispute is unique. Today, though, let’s take a look at some serious issues with retirement planning. They could be more intricately connected to the estate dispute than you realized.

To start with, a surprising amount of Americans do not have as much money as they need to retire. One report claimed that nearly half (42%) could end up getting to retirement age with inadequate savings.

It could be even higher than that. In one study, almost 50% of Americans had not put aside more than $10,000. Even though they had some savings, in some cases, they were not anywhere near where they needed to be. As long as it may take to save $10,000, that’s not going to last very long at all without an income.

The inheritance solution

What is the solution for many of these adults who have not saved enough to retire? They want to inherit the money. They may or may not know how much their parents even have, but that’s the money they look forward to. They hope it can solve the problem and give them something to retire on when their parents pass away.

In fact, some may even have planned around that money. Maybe they didn’t save up anything themselves because they figured their parents would bail them out, so they might as well use their own money in the moment.

The disputes

All of this circles back to estate dispute. What if the children don’t get as much as they expected? What if they can’t agree on what to do with the house because one person wants to sell it and retire and the other wants to live in it so they won’t have a mortgage payment? What if one sibling gets more than the other, so one can retire on the inheritance and the other can’t?

You can go on and on with potential conflicts, but it all comes back to that lack of savings. It is important for anyone involved in a heated estate dispute in California to know what options they have.

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