Some reasons why clients sometimes leave nothing to their children in their will or trust

Tom: Sometimes our clients come to us and say, "Tom, I've got three kids. I'm estranged from one of them. I want to leave that child nothing."

Holley: That actually happens a lot as well.

Tom: When I do that, I always ask the client, "Okay, please tell me why you're leaving nothing to that child." Reasons could be, here's a common one, "I loaned him or her money, they never paid me back."

Holley: Number one, I would say. Number one.

Tom: Okay. All right. Or number two, "I gave them money during my lifetime. I gave him $200,000 for a down payment on a house. I've taken care of that child." Or, "That child, I put him all the way through graduate school, the other kids I didn't pay for any college." Those are all good reasons. When they give me that good reason, I put it in our database. Now, when mom and dad pass away and that child who was left nothing hires an attorney and the attorney contacts us and say, "Tom, you know what? I think that client made a mistake. I think they forgot that they had this child. That's why that child's not included in the will." Or, "Because there's no good reason why mom and dad would've cut my client out, there's no way." I could go to my database and I copy my notes. "Here's why he or she was left out."

Holley: Exactly.

Tom: Then that just-

Holley: Shuts it down.

Tom: -shuts them up. Shuts it down. Exactly.

[00:01:18] [END OF AUDIO]