People often assume that their beneficiaries may get into estate disputes over major items. Maybe their parents’ house is incredibly valuable, and some beneficiaries want to keep it, while others simply want to sell it so they can get a portion of the money. They are looking at assets from a financial perspective, and big-ticket items could certainly lead to disputes.
But what sometimes happens is that beneficiaries get into disputes over much smaller items that may not have a lot of financial value. These could just be items with sentimental value, like rings and jewelry, books, home furnishings, sets of dishes or anything else that connects the adult children to their childhood. These items have sentimental value because of their connection to the past and the memories that they hold.
These can be complex disputes
The reason that this often results in a dispute is because sentimental value is impossible to replicate. Say that two siblings want the same book series they remember reading with their parents as children, because it has notes written in the margins and brings back good memories. Technically, they could buy another copy of the series so that both people could have a set, but that may not be satisfactory because the new series wouldn’t have that same sentimental connection.
The second issue is that these assets often are not worth much money. With expensive assets, a potential solution is usually just to sell them and divide the money. But a set of books may only be worth $30. There is not much point in selling it and giving each beneficiary $15. They don’t want those books because of the financial value, but because of their own memories and the connection to their parents.
As such, it’s important to plan for sentimental items in an estate plan, and beneficiaries need to know how to find a solution if a dispute arises.