When money buys you unhappiness

While it may be true that money can’t buy happiness, it’s also true that money can buy a lot of unhappiness.

Never is that truer than with last wishes expressed in a will or trust.

With my now nearly 40 years of practice, I can tell you that certain actions people take in their wills or trusts will likely cause unhappiness among heirs and beneficiaries, no matter how much money they are receiving.

Parents are often torn about leaving shares of an estate equally to children when one or more child is more well off financially than the other(s). I hear comments that the more financially stable child doesn’t “need it” or, the inverse, discussions about how much more the other child “needs it”—the “it” of course being money. Usually, the parents have some understanding, however deep down, th