My mother wants to write a will but keeps putting it off because she doesn't know how to divide her stocks and bonds between myself and my two sisters. She is afraid that if she divides them up that the values may change and one of us may get a money maker and some of us may get ones of less value. She wants to be fair and as even as can be. Stocks and bonds can be hard to predict. She keeps procrastinating because of this and never gets anything done. She seems as though she finally wants to get the ball rolling though and get something in writing. With a will there is less likelihood that there will be any disputes or "mom promised me that" type of BS. She knows this and we know it. Better to have it in writing. Anyway does anyone have any good ideas or knowledge about how others handle this aspect of their estate planning? How do others divide stocks and bonds so everyone gets a relatively equal happy ending?
2007-02-27 07:52:04 · 3 answers · asked by iwanln 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
Instead of giving certain stocks tell her to divide the total value at time of death and use percentages (i.e. $1000 in stocks and she is dividing the total value of her investments equally among her three children it would be 333.33 for each child).
You could have an independent executor so that no one will be accused of bias in dividing up the estate.
Hope this helps.
2007-02-27 08:04:24 · answer #1 · answered by R Worth 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most people dont divide investments and stocks/bonds by name like that.
They say that each child gets an equal 1/3 interest in all stocks/bonds/investments. Then they can either be sold after she passes or the siblings can buy one another out of the ones they want/dont want. She should NOT say that "Mary gets my Microsoft stock" and "Joe gets my Apple stock"....unforseen circumstances can drastically change the values of them at any given time.
2007-02-27 17:09:33 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Before my mom died, she made sure the names of my brothers and me were on each account.... equally. Her bank accounts, stocks, POD CD's, etc. The only thing left exclusively to me was the house. The contents of the house we split equally.
2007-02-27 16:00:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋