Charity Begins At Home

As parents approach the winter of their lives, their children have become adults whose trajectories are fairly clear. Of course, extremely positive and negative surprises can still occur, but most parents can tell which of of their children will be financially successful and which will likely have problems throughout their lives.

The question: how do you help the struggling ones now without being "unfair"? [Your humble observer has seen first hand how siblings have been riven by parents trying to help the poorer ones through unequal division of the estate.)

One answer: the long-term promissory note.

One creative solution is for the parents to make a loan that serves as an advance on the child’s inheritance. Even though it’s a loan, the chances are the client is never going to see that money again.

The child signs a promissory note with a low rate of interest*, and the note is due to the parents in 30 years or upon the death of the second parent, when the estate settles. Parents like this arrangement because it’s a way to give one child some money while treating all children equally in the estate. The estate split can still be equal, and the loan for the needy child gets repaid back to the parents’ estate from the child’s inheritance. The children like this approach because the money is a loan, not a handout.

*In order for the loan not to be treated as a gift and triggering a possible gift tax, the IRS publishes minimum interest rates that should be charged on the intra-family loan.

As many of us sort through the pile of pleas from charitable organizations, make sure we give a thought about how to help those closest to home.