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| Debbie Pecor, Senior Paralegal |
How
much information is too much information?
There’s a loaded question! After my grandmother passed, my dad and my
aunts asked my grandfather if he had a will.
He replied, “Yes.” Years later, however,
when he passed, there was no will to be found.
Not that it necessarily made a huge difference since he probably would
have left his estate in equal shares to his children. I know what his logic was: his money was his
business and none of theirs.
My father always told me that it was none
of my business what anyone else was getting paid and it was none of anyone
else’s business what I was getting paid.
What a change through the generations!
Today, everything is posted on social media practically before it’s
happened! It’s like no one cares about
privacy anymore.
Estate planning documents, particularly
wills and/or trusts, should remain private and not be shared with anyone. There are just too many instances where your
documents could get into the wrong hands.
It is certainly okay to let someone outside the family know if you have
named them in a position of authority, but please do not give them a copy of
anything. Instead, simply let them know
that you have prepared documents and tell them who they need to contact (the
attorney who prepared your documents) if something happens to you, whether it
is death, incapacity, or incompetency. Let’s
keep our family matters private as best as we can in this age of almost instant
information.
By the way, my grandfather’s estate was
settled with NO arguments, problems or court actions! And there were NINE children. That’s almost unheard of in this day and
age. Maybe it was because his children
thought the same way he did – it was his business and none of anyone else’s.
