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These persons include your children's own spouses and your spouse's own parents and siblings.
In-laws are important for various reasons. First, they may have inheritance rights in regards to your blood relatives' estates. Second, they have influence over your blood relatives. And, third, they may have become important to you personally based on your own relationship to them.
Let us examine how one's in-laws are a factor to be considered in estate planning.
In-laws may be either a positive or negative factor in helping you decide how to proceed with your estate plan.
On the bright side, in-laws who are trustworthy, capable and willing might have a possible helpful role in assisting in the administration of your affairs. That assistance might be either for your own benefit or the benefit of someone else.
For example, one might decide to name an in-law as his or her alternative agent and/or alternative successor trustee to act for his or her benefit under a power of attorney and trust, respectively, if and when one became disabled.
In such situations, I often find that if an in-law is so named as a possible alternative it is in case other blood relatives are unable to fulfill that role.
Another scenario where an in-law might assist involves a hypothetical brother who find it either necessary or beneficial to leave his disabled sister's inheritance in further trust and not outright to the sister.
That might be so if the sister is receiving Medi-Cal at a skilled nursing facility. Then the sister's at-home spouse might act as trustee of a special needs trust and so receive the sister's inheritance to prevent disqualification from needs-based benefits.
Also, consider the grandparents of an under-age (minor) grandchild who inherits in place of their deceased child. The grandparents may decide to name the grandchild's surviving parent (i.e., their deceased child's own surviving spouse) to control their grandchild's inheritance.
On the darker side, however, one's in-laws might sometimes present a real concern. This might be due to strained family relations and/or the in-law's own personal characteristics.
For example, in such a case one might well be concerned that any inheritance left outright to a blood relative (such as one's child) might come under the negative undue influence of that child's spouse.
In the extreme, consider the unfortunate parent of a weak-willed child who is married to a manipulating and dissolute spouse.
That same parent might decide it best to not leave the child an inheritance outright but to keep such inheritance in a trust managed by someone dependable as trustee for the child's benefit. Otherwise, if left outright to the child, that inheritance may be lost one way or another due to the self-serving
manipulation of the child's spouse.
Furthermore, that same parent is unlikely to wish to name that weak willed child as successor trustee lest that child's spouse again manipulate or frustrate the administration of the trust to the detriment of all concerned.
Lastly, on a positive note, many people often choose to leave something to a favored daughter-in-law or son-in-law as a token of their affection.
Such as, a daughter-in-law may be allowed to participate in selecting some items of jewelry, or a son-in-law may be given some items of personal property (e.g., golf clubs or a gun collection).
Hopefully your in-laws have enriched your life and the lives of your loved ones, thus endearing
themselves in your own heart.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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