Kids Suing Parents

Here’s a basic contradiction. If you get a reverse mortgage it means you’re draining the equity from your property. This may or may not be an issue to you, but what about your heirs?

This gets into a philosophical question: Are you really responsible for leaving your kids a big inheritance? Some of us get a great deal of satisfaction with the idea of trying to help our children. That seems very natural and normal. At the same time there is also the idea that the work of a lifetime should be used to enhance the way that we live.

These are issues to think about and, more importantly, they are also issues to discuss with the children. It’s really valuable to sit down with the kids and ask what they think, ask about their needs and preferences and then think about what you would like to do.

A number of years ago there was a gentleman who had set aside several million dollars for his children. In his 80s, however, he met a woman of the youngish persuasion and began to spend a considerable number of dollars on her entertainment, travel and education. The children weren’t happy about this, in part because every dollar spent on the young woman was a dollar that was not spent on them. The matter went to court and the judge ruled in favor of father, arguing that the gentleman was entirely aware of what he was doing and that the money was his.

Rather than going to court — and rather than hurting anyone’s feelings or expectations — it’s just much better to talk out with the kids what it is that you want to do. After that conversation if a reverse mortgage makes sense, then sit down with an attorney who specializes in elder law and get the right paperwork to assure that your needs and wishes are met.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.