Family time has a way of forcing hard questions to the surface, especially around money, responsibility, and boundaries. |
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Tuesday Triage December 30, 2025 |
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Hi there, Family time has a way of forcing hard questions to the surface, especially around money, responsibility, and boundaries. Your holiday might have looked fine on Facebook or Instagram, but maybe underneath the photos, you felt that familiar knot in your stomach. The sense that certain dynamics aren’t changing and that someday, those dynamics are going to collide with your estate plan. Today’s Tuesday Triage is about disinheritance—what it actually means, when it can feel like a reasonable option, and why it often creates far more damage than relief. In this episode, I walk through a realistic scenario involving an adult child struggling with addiction. We’ll unpack: - what disinheritance is (and what it isn’t)
- why cutting someone out entirely can increase conflict and litigation
- how trusts, professional trustees, and no-contest clauses can protect all of your children, and
- why estate plans don’t just distribute money—they distribute responsibility
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This conversation isn’t about punishment or judgment. It's about slowing down, thinking clearly, and avoiding estate planning decisions that unintentionally pit your children against each other long after you're gone. |
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If you challenge this estate plan and you lose, you also lose whatever I left you. It only works if the person has something meaningful to lose. If someone is completely cut out or given something so minimal, like $1, they have nothing to risk. And that can make litigation more likely. |
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If this episode brings up questions you don’t want rattling around in your head, I created The Death Readiness Playbook for moments exactly like this. It’s a practical, guided way to organize information, understand your options, and think through hard decisions before they become emergencies. |
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1938 Burdette Street #3029
Ferndale, MI 48220, United States |
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