My situation is as follows:
- No children.
- No living parents.
- Long term (six years) live-in significant other but unmarried. How do people decide when it make sense to be each other's beneficiaries outside of marriage?
- MANY siblings. So many that I was unable to add them as beneficiaries to some of my financial accounts because the number of beneficiaries was larger than they support. Also relevant: there is a large age gap between myself and my siblings so I'm statistically likely to outlive them. However, if I die before them I would love to leave them money.
- Huge quantity of nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews. Struggling to figure out what I want to do for them. Or how to divide my money between my siblings and my siblings kids/grandkids
We finally got around to just getting the will and trust done 5–6 years ago because I thought it was more important to get it DONE then to have the perfect vehicle. With that in place, I’ve been rethinking what to do. We also do not have children.
I am coming around to think like Iris Lily. Also no children.
First priority is giving a possibly life-changing amount to Mom & Sis. If they split what I have now, they could each buy about half a house (in their current locations). This would be a great comfort to Mom who has a home loan but is living on a fixed income with little savings. She could likely eliminate the loan. And Sis would almost certainly buy a home, and be able to afford payments on the remainder since she's still working. If I don't need the stash to support me, then I'd really like to make their lives easier and more secure.
For a while, was thinking about also leaving college funds to the nieces and nephews. But how much? I don't want to deplete the estate putting them through college, and thereby pass up the opportunity to give what I can to my two closest people.
At the same time, which nieces and nephews? FTR, I don't technically have any; these kids are the children of my cousins. There are 5 who I see regularly and two more who I've spent some time with and find charming. There are 7 more who I barely know; however I know their parents quite well, even if I am not as close to them as my other cousins. So, what...like 14 x $5K? $10K? Not more than that, as it starts to materially affect how much Mom & Sis get. So what if I just say $xxx to be divided equally among the living offspring of these 9 people on the date of my death? Will it even amount to anything worthwhile by the time they are college age? What if they don't go to college? Who will administer these funds, to be sure they are spent on tuition? What if the 9 cousins (plus Sis) have more kids later on, do they just get shafted?
And then...what about my cousins on my MOM's side? Fewer in number, less prolific, and I am less close to them. But still...
So. For now, Mom & Sis will split it and as the stash grows I can make other decisions and amend the trust. The oldest will hit college in 5 years, a lot could change by then...