If you have a common estate and plan to distribute property through your will, plan a simple distribution. There is no need to force your executor to flow chart the beneficiaries and solve a complex algorithm to distribute property as depicted in the article Why is Calculating a Distribution from a Will Necessary?. In addition, complex distribution instructions increase expenses of the estate by forcing the executor to use outside help. So, to avoid giving your executor needless headaches and inflating expenses of the estate, plan a simple distribution.

Planning a Simple Distribution

At times, even with common estates, life circumstances of the estate planner dictate the complexity of an estate plan. However, a complicated estate plan doesn’t require complicated distribution instructions. When planning your estate, limit your beneficiaries to as few as possible, then setting up a simple distribution becomes possible. In fact, the following benefits to the estate result because of fewer beneficiaries:

• By limiting beneficiaries and distributing property to fewer beneficiaries, the distribution instructions become simple.
• With few beneficiaries, mailings become less burdensome for the executor in terms of labor and lowers the cost of postage.
• The executor can avoid using expensive outside help to review and interpret complicated distribution instructions.
• Fewer beneficiaries will most likely be civil and less likely to become disgruntled over property.

So, the key to a simple distribution is to limit the number of beneficiaries. With fewer beneficiaries, the estate administration becomes less expensive and much smoother.

Conclusion

There are no restrictions as to how many beneficiaries you can include in your will. In fact, you can include a large pool of beneficiaries in your estate plan and still have a simple distribution. However, in common estates with large beneficiary pools, estate planners make the mistake of getting creative. Instead of distributing to a few primary beneficiaries, they try to plan an equitable distribution among many types of beneficiaries. As a result, they fall into a trap that forces them into complicated distribution instructions.

In the end, it’s better to limit the amount of beneficiaries in your estate plan to set a simple distribution. With a simple distribution, your executor will appreciate the simplicity at a time in the administration where it is needed the most: at the end.

Was this article helpful? Do you understand why it is important to keep simple distribution instructions in your will? Share your comments of questions in the comment area below.

Recommended Reading

Plan Your Estate– In this book by Nolo there are real life examples of estate plans and property distributions within those plans. These examples should provide some great ideas for your own estate plan.