Where There’s a Will . . .

Ah . . . but IS there a will? I’m talking not only of the will to make decisions about what comes in the future (after you’re not here to make those choices), but also what you need to do to let others carry out your wishes. Two wills.

The easiest one first. In order to be sure that others will handle your estate the way you want it, there is a fairly simple thing to do. The best way is to meet with your attorney to discuss what you want done, and have the attorney prepare the legal document(s) that are needed. This process will help you to identify the individuals you want to inherit some of your assets, and any organizations to which you want to share a portion of your estate.

Those choices are often relatively easy to make – most times, the majority of your estate is left to your spouse/partner and your children. Then, many often leave a portion to charities (e.g., one or more not-for-profit organizations that have been important to the individual, the religious organization with which they have been associated, and so on). Your attorney can help you consider which individuals and organizations should be included in your will.

For most of us, that is the easy part. But then the difficult part begins – how much of your estate do you want to leave to each beneficiary? For me, that was a far tougher decision.

Was this dollar amount too much? Too little? Putting a dollar amount for each beneficiary wasn’t easy, particularly since I didn’t really know how much I would even have in the future. When I made my first will when I was much younger, I didn’t have much to give away. And I certainly couldn’t determine a realistic amount of money I’d be able to leave (hopefully) many, many years down the road. At best, determining specific dollar amounts would require me to continually estimate how much I’d have available to give.

This stumped me – and, I found, it was stumping many others as well. There were just too many variables to consider.

Until it dawned on me – there is a much simpler way to handle this. I don’t need to estimate how much money I will have a number of years from now. For the accountant in me, the answer . . . percentages!

By eliminating the element of dollars, I could simply decide that I wanted to give 50% to one person, 20% to an organization, and various percentages to other people or groups. The dollars, then, would work themselves out. For me, that was a much easier way to handle my dilemma.

Over the years, I have mentioned this to a number of people, and I could almost see the relief on their faces.

Give it a try. Where there’s a will, there’s a (simpler) way.

Letter from the President
Paul R. Shackford

August, 2026