Unless you’ve been in a cave the last 10 days or so, you know there is conflict in the Ukraine.

And, while that ignites all of the usual thoughts about war and totalitarianism and news narratives and all of the other things, because I’m a dorky estate planning attorney it also gets me thinking about asset distribution and why in most cases specific asset directives are a bad idea.

Before I get to the punchline (and this one will be short, I promise you) let me define specific asset directives.

From time to time clients will request specific instructions inside of their trust related to how assets are to be held or managed or invested.

Sometimes it’s to hold a piece of real estate no matter what (or sell it no matter what).

Sometimes it’s to invest assets in a very particular way (only Vanguard index funds, for example).

And every time this happens I caution clients to be aware of the fact that they cannot predict what the world will be like when they die.

The world could be gripped in a global pandemic.

The world could be paying attention to a specific geographic conflict with potential worldwide effects.

The world could be experiencing unprecedented peace and wealth and prosperity (it doesn’t always have to be bad).

In that case it would be prudent for your trustee to have some flexibility to make decisions related to asset investment in line with the current environment.

Predicting the future is hard.

Protecting your family is easy – often the key is to just not overthink it.

Happy March! Looking forward to those spring temps (and cussing the pollen, which already has me sneezing like crazy).

Cheers.

Christopher Small

PS – A bunch of helpful information can be found on my YouTube channel, which you can access here –

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCerbSRuT2uO_v_-24xxGiUg