How do I decide how much each beneficiary should receive? (Step Two: the “treatment” decision)

Hello, my name is Ron Blue, and one of the most difficult things about the wealth transfer issue is how much do I leave to each of my children. If I only have one child, that’s an easy answer. But in my particular case, I had five children. And of course it is not uncommon to have two, three, four, five, and even more than that.

Here is a principle that I think we should follow: if you love your children equally, you will treat them uniquely. In other words, they’re not all the same. They don’t marry the same, they don’t have the same, perhaps, health needs, financial needs, relationship needs, whatever it may be in terms of their life. Each of your children, as time goes on, even, becomes more and more unique.

So you’ve got to answer the question, “If I’m going to leave wealth, do I want to treat my children as if I’m honoring them, and honoring them in the process by treating them uniquely, unique from their brothers and sisters?”

Now, I’m not saying, necessarily, that you don’t leave wealth equally. But I am saying that you need to answer the question, “How am I going to handle the individual and unique needs of each of my children, and treat them uniquely because I love them equally?”

Click here for the July 31, 2009 Blog Entry