Academics in San Francisco spent grant money reviewing thousands of trust dispute filings to discover what anyone who's met a wealthy family already knew. Give people money after you die and they'll fight about it.
The study examined civil filings scheduled for San Francisco Superior Court. Contested trust disputes. That's the technical term for when your brother hires a lawyer because dad left him the Monterey condo instead of the Palo Alto teardown worth eight million dollars.
Researchers identified specific estate-planning choices that trigger litigation. Unequal distributions top the list. Turns out telling one kid they get the portfolio while the other gets your golf clubs creates tension. Groundbreaking stuff.
Conditional bequests also ranked high. Nothing says family harmony like making your inheritance contingent on graduating law school or staying married to someone your parents approved of three decades ago.
The findings suggest clarity prevents conflict. Wrong. Clarity just gives heirs a more specific thing to argue about in depositions. You can spell out every asset in a fifty-page trust document and someone will still claim you promised them the lake house during Thanksgiving 2019.
San Francisco Superior Court was the data source. Makes sense. That's where rich people with too much time and exactly enough money to afford litigation go to destroy whatever relationship they had left with their siblings.
Estate planning attorneys will use this study to justify higher fees. They'll tell clients about the research. They'll draft more detailed trusts. They'll bill more hours. And five years after you're dead your kids will still end up in front of a judge fighting over your coin collection.
The study cost taxpayer money to confirm that humans are petty and money makes them pettier. Could've just asked anyone who's read a will at a funeral while watching cousins do math in their heads.
Photo by Precondo CA on Unsplash
Leave a Comment