There is nothing worse than feeling under pressure from familial expectations, except when those pressures are being applied to you in regards to your Will. You may want to simply disregard your family’s expectations, especially if you feel like your wishes don’t matter to your family, but there is a better way to deal with this situation.
Your Will, Your Decision
The first thing to reconcile yourself with is that no matter what, your Will is exactly that, a declaration of your will and what you want to happen. As the owner of assets, it is your right to decide what happens to everything you have accumulated throughout your life. But there is nothing to say that you can’t find some middle ground where your wishes are respected, but your family members still get something that they want, even if it’s not exactly what they had in mind.
Write down your wishes, then discuss them
One of the best things that you can do to help strike a balance between your wishes and family expectations is to think about what you want to happen to your estate and do a rough outline of how you want to divide your estate. Once you have done that, show it to your family and talk to them about why you have made those decisions.
Your family may surprise you when they see how and why you want to divide your estate in a certain way. They may even have some suggestions that you might not have thought of that are in line with your wishes.
If your family do not react in a positive way and make demands for you to change things in their favour, there are some more drastic steps that you can take.
Radical Action
Sometimes the threat of losing everything can be an excellent wake-up call to those who are adamant that they deserve more than you are willing to give. You can choose to remove them from your Will completely and inform them that their attitude has cost them any inheritance, but should they change their minds and be willing to accept your wishes, your Will can be rewritten at a later date.
Charities Inherit Instead
You may find that your family expectations become so tiresome that you may only want to leave them sentimental items and instead leave the majority of your estate to a charity or local organisations that do good works.
Keep Your Family Informed
No matter what you decide to do with your estate, make sure that you keep your family informed of your decisions. Wills can be rewritten whenever you like, and there is nothing to say that you can’t find some level of compromise between what your family expects and what you want to happen to your estate.
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