Gresham’s Chief Wealth Strategist, Kim Kamin, Comments on Defining Descendants – Who Inherits Under Your Client’s Wills and Trusts? in the Steve Leimberg’s Estate Planning Newsletter

“Who a client names as their beneficiaries is fundamental to carrying out their dispositive wishes. How their estate planning instruments define, or in the absence of a definition, the state default rule, terms such as ‘child,’ ‘descendant,’ and ‘issue,’ is critical to assure that the individuals a client wants included are included as beneficiaries, and those whom they don’t want included are not. How modern medical reproductive techniques, social mores, adoption, nonmarital children, and other considerations are addressed in planning are complex and evolving considerations. This newsletter will in explore some issues inherent this planning and the possible implications for your client’s estate planning.”

In their commentary, Martin M. Shenkman, Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Sandra D. Glazier, Kim Kamin and Thomas A. Tietz explore the issues inherent in how a client’s estate planning instruments address important terms such as child, descendant and issue.