Try to leave your estate equally to your children, if you don't, tell your lawyer why

Attorney Tom Olsen: It was Dear Abbey, and then it was Anne Landers, and now it's Ask Amy, but back in the Dear Abbey days, I specifically remember people talking about or her giving advice that when you split up your estate, you should treat all your kids equally. You should leave everything equally to them.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Correct.

Tom: That is always going to be my starting position.

Chris: Absolutely.

Tom: My foundation.

Chris: Correct. Well, that's what we do, is that you're right, that's always going to be the starting point is leaving everything equal. Then, just for people to be aware because of what you were just sharing with the listeners about that particular Zoom call with the family where they did omit one of their children, here in the state of Florida, you have no legal obligation to your adult children, and a lot of times, people don't know that.

We are believers of include all of them and have everything equal. However, with that said, Florida law allows you to omit because of the fact that there's no legal obligation to leave anything to adult children, and for that matter, there's only a legal obligation to two classes of people, your spouse, and your minor children.

Tom: Correct. Well said. Exactly. If you want to omit a child, you certainly can. Again, if you do that here at the Olson Law Group, we're going to ask you for your reasons why because if you pass away and that omitted child hires a lawyer to sue your estate to try and get their share and that lawyer contacts Olsen Law Group and they go, "What were you thinking, Tom, when you drafted this will for mom and you omitted her son, my client?" I can pull up the notes and say, well, here's exactly why she did it.

Chris: Here's why.

Tom: Usually starts with, I loaned him money and he never paid me back. [chuckles] Oh, boy.

Chris: Exactly. That's the usual one. To take that one step further, when you do that, the reason for if you are, again, we're about starting and giving it equal, but if you do decide that you want to omit, all the more reason why you want it in writing.

You want to have that will because exactly what you just said, now that lawyer calls you, says, "Tom, why did you omit my client?" You give them the reasons. Now, what does that lawyer need to do? Tell that child, "Hey, this is it."

Tom: You got nothing.

Chris: "You got nothing. You stop it right here."

Tom: Exactly.

Chris: So that it doesn't go further, and that is the reason for making sure it is in writing.

[00:02:42] [END OF AUDIO]