Kahler Financial Group
By Rick Kahler
August 2nd, 2021
Leaving Money Wisely To A Spendthrift Heir
A common estate-planning question is whether it makes sense to leave inheritances with strings attached. It’s natural to want your legacy to be used wisely, but trying to control from beyond the grave can have unintended consequences.
Perhaps the most common reason for wanting to control a legacy is a spendthrift heir. Giving a chronic overspender an inheritance in hope that it will help change their money behavior is almost always magical thinking.
Most lump sum inheritances disappear within a few years in the control of an overspender.
Parents of someone with a lifetime pattern of financial chaos and crisis don’t usually want to disinherit that child completely. They commonly want to protect such heirs from themselves.
