DEAR CAROLYN: My parents always told us they were taking care of us in their will and their house was full of valuable antiques.
Im executor of the estate and when all is said and done, my siblings and I will get around $7,000 each. Which is nice, but not what they led us to believe for a long time.
Im fine with this, I wasnt really expecting anything huge. But one of my siblings is expecting a windfall to put his kids through college.
We are meeting tomorrow to go over this and I have to break the news. I need some guidance on how to tell my sibling this and how to explain the situation when they get upset.
DEAR EXECUTOR: Careful documentation is your friend.
Explaining will come across as backpedaling and excuse-making and spin to someone disinclined to believe you. Offer it up as something that surprised you as well, since its true, and that didnt square at all with what your parents had led you to believe, so you checked the numbers many times over.
Then show them and let the document do the talking, not you. Good luck.
DEAR CAROLYN:
Re: Inheritance
Send the estate accounting to the siblings before the meeting. Give them a chance to think about the documents and internalize their meaning. Springing the documents on them during the meeting will only create problems.
Anonymous
