Ilyce Glink's Love Money + Real Estate
#003: Entitled Siblings + Inheritances
Hi there. I hope you had a wonderful holiday.
I had a conversation with a friend a couple of weeks ago about how her 96-year old mom has structured her estate. She's going to get two-thirds of the money, and her sibling will get one-third, and she knows the sibling is going to blow a gasket when he finds out.
She isn’t close to this sibling. He’s done nothing to help out Mom, is belligerent and demanding, and is basically the kind of relative you hope says “No” to any invitation. And, as you might expect, there are some complicating factors. So, what’s the problem? (Here’s a link to the Q&A. What do you think?).
When a parent dies, it’s tough on the whole family. But often, siblings experience the loss in different ways. (I learned this 40 years ago, when my own father died unexpectedly.)
No one wants to face financial unpleasantness when an estate is unfurled and siblings are treated unequally. Can you imagine sitting there, knowing that someone is bound to be extremely disappointed and angry about a decision you had nothing to do with, at a time when you just want to be sad and remember the person you lost?
Did you miss these?
A few other stories you might want to read:
And, from BestMoneyMoves.com:
Money + real estate news this week
The U.S. produced only 210,000 payroll jobs in November, and we’re still down nearly 4 million jobs from the February 2020 peak, just before the pandemic started.
But the unemployment rate is now down to 4.2%, which Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, says is “below March 2020 levels when the ugly COVID virus came to the country.” Still, he believes you should take that 4.2% number with a grain of salt:
Based on normal population growth and young adults entering the workforce each year in a hypothetical world where the pandemic did not happen, America should have around 8 million more jobs now compared to the current situation.
The highlight number in the jobs report: 1.1 million people reported having a new job, which is far higher than the 210,000 reported by company payroll data. What gives? Entrepreneurship.
Americans started more than 4 million applications to start new businesses from January 1 through Sept 30, 2021, according to an analysis of Census data from the Economic Innovation Group. It looks like this will be the most ever.
It’s thought that one of the things that kept the U.S. from recovering more quickly from the Great Recession is that people didn’t go out and start new businesses. While a huge proportion of new businesses fail, not starting them is far worse for the economy.
U.S. household net worth increased 17.6% between 2016 and 2019. The median net worth is now $127,000. As you can see from this table, provided by Research Institute for Housing America, the Mortgage Bankers Association think tank, Americans paid down a lot of debt over those years. I expect the number to rise dramatically through 2021, due to the stock market and government pandemic relief.
Unfortunately, we won’t know that for another few years. Isn’t hindsight great?
Mobile home values are rising faster than single-family home values, according to a new Lending Tree report. The most expensive place to buy one is in Washington State.
Redfin reports that the number of homes for sale hit an all-time low at the end of November. The median home price hit another record high and one-third of homes sold in a week or less. That’s why the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) raised 2022 loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 18.05% (biggest increase ever) to $647,200 nationally and $970,800 in high-cost markets.
Meanwhile, the number of Realtors hit an all-time high. So, lots of folks want to help you buy and sell a dwindling number of homes.
On a personal note
Thanksgiving was a wonderful opportunity to see family and friends we hadn’t seen in nearly 18 months. Yes, we stuffed ourselves. But, we also reflected on how fortunate we all are.
Years ago, a close friend gave me this:
Basically, it’s the motto of my home and hearth. I hope you’ll be able to share this month with the people you love.
See you next week.
Ilyce, I think your response was on point. The woman says she intends to care for a sister who will need care for the rest of her life; giving the woman the sister's share makes sense and is not unfair. Of course, no one knows with certainty whether the woman will, indeed, set aside 1/2 of what she receives to save or invest for his sister. As for the brother, he is a slug and most likely won't even appreciate the more-than-fair 1/3 share he is receiving.
I would add another factor to consider. Some have children who are childless; in such a case, the childless son or daugther will not face a lifetime of raising, caring for and educating (for who knows how long?) a child or children. So maybe allotting more to the kids who have dependents makes sense and is not unfair.
Thanks for a great article.