north central Iowa, Hampton | working through settling an estate at the moment. Some sort of extra cash is really helpful--off farm investments, life insurance etc.
I suppose it also depends on what the person writing the estate plan wants. If there's a desire to leave all the land to one child--no problem. If there are multiple heirs and there is a desire to split things up more or less evenly, then there needs to be liquid assets, or a way to divide the land. I think it's a poor idea to leave undivided interests (each child owns 1/4 of the whole) I've rented that sort of farm before and it often doesn't work very good.
Oh, and if you're working on an estate plan, do yourself a favor and walk through a cemetery looking at the dates of death. Too often, people make a plan that assumes both parents die nearly at the same time. In reality, you'll see on the gravestones that there are often decades of life separating two spouses. |
estate planning with or without life insurance?
