How many people do you know who describe with glee the meeting with their estate planning attorney?  To the contrary, I know many who’ve been working on their estate plan for years.

In fact, the plan will remain incomplete unless, of course, they are facing international travel, which will sometimes prompt a hurried meeting with the lawyer.

What is the key to completing an estate plan? It is sharing your pain. What do I mean?

Often the reason a family avoids the estate planning process is that they’ve never learned to share their pain. When completing an estate plan, a family has to begin summing up their lives—how much they’ve accumulated, what they think of their kids, and charities they may want to support.

Inevitably, in looking back at their past, they must address the pain and regrets of the past. Many don’t know how to express the doubts about their own marriage, their children, and what they value. The gift to charity is a reflection of what they value.

Yet as a family begins to work through their pain they can make clear decisions about the future. Estate plans are living messages to a time we’ll never see. It is wise to work with a planner who knows how to discuss and draw out a family and put on the table all the doubts and fears. Once those doubts and fears are cleared up, everything else can fall in place.

So take heart. Share the pain and complete the plan.

Learn how to express your heart for your loved ones by including a legacy letter in your estate documents. Download my Guide to Purposeful Language to get started.

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published September 29, 2010

Topics: Estate Planning

Estate PlanningInheritanceValues