Passing on

Estate planning is a complicated process. Aside from the practical financial aspects, you often must wade through an emotional quagmire when deciding how best to protect your family and leave a lasting legacy. Questions naturally arise. What is fair in estate planning? How should you choose your beneficiaries? A financial analyst won't be able to help you answer these questions, but a sociologist can. This is the experience Ruth Dixon-Mueller brings to her new guide to "passing on." Dixon-Mueller covers the history behind our testamentary freedom and the evolution of inheritance laws in the United States, the morality of inheritances and intergenerational transmission of wealth, the lessons the current inheritance patterns in America offer about economic inequality, the concerns of the parent writing a will for his or her children, the importance of negotiations between siblings who have been left property jointly, and the question of whether and how to involve family members in determining what is fair. As you contemplate your future, the insights in Passing On can help you view fairness from different perspectives. You can then create an estate plan that reflects your personal values and makes emotional as well as financial sense.