Attorney’s Advice About Estate Plans: Don’t Tell the Family

Tempted to tell an ungrateful relative that he or she has been cut out of your will? Don't do it, an attorney advises.

The unnamed legal counsel, writing in response to an earlier column on open estate planning, says it's generally a bad idea to tell relatives too much about what they can expect to inherit under a will, reports the Prairie Star.

"He routinely advises clients not to read their last will and testament to their children or give them copies of it, or tell them what is in it," the Montana-based agricultural publication reports. "He feels that almost invariably, when they have gone against his suggestions, there is an uproar in the family and it causes a split in the family relationship."