My wife and I have been talking about this topic recently. My brother passed away without a will, and it's been interesting to see who his friends where. Most of them want his stuff, but only one actually showed up to help out with getting everything in order. He is also the only one that didn't ask for anything.
Dealing with his estate has made us question what we to happen with our stuff. I don't have any kids, but my wife has 4. She has said more then once that kids are over rated. They are all OK, but none of them will do anything for anybody else. They all do the very minimum to get by, and then put all their energy into complaining and begging for handouts. We do not plan on leaving them anything. We also don't expect any of them to help us out if we need help with anything when we get older. We're on our own.
One of our passions in life is our dogs. We raise and show Akita's. Our biggest concern is that they will be taken care of after we pass away. As we get older, we will slow down with this, but there is always the concern that we might pass away before they do. We know of several people in the Akita world that would take care of them, so that's been a consideration. We also know of a young lady that would be a good fit to live here and take over the place once we are gone. We're not thrilled with her husband, but he might not be around for much longer and that strengthens her position to get everything. I know it's petty on our part, but he is lazy and jealous of her success from her hard work and constantly pushing herself. On several occasions he has gone out of his way to sabotage her for no other reason then to try to make himself look good. With him in the picture, it complicates what we want to do with our place.
Another option is the Akita Club of America. My wife is a Board Member and we are very active in supporting everything they do to help the breed. There are some truly horrible people out there and when law enforcement takes action, the Club steps in to find homes for those Akita's. We both believe that if they received our estate, they would do what's best for our dogs.
There is also hope that one or some of the grandkids will become people that we can become proud. In that, I'm saying that we would chose one or all of them to receive everything we have if they are successful, responsible, and honest. Unfortunately, our fear is that they will turn out like their parents and live their life's based on what they can get for nothing, and finding as much time as possible to play video games. It might be better if they where crack addicts. I think there is a chance of overcoming crack. Video Games seem to be more addictive!!!!
If we live long enough, we will eventually sell the farm, move somewhere else, and downsize. If that happens, we will have fewer dogs, fewer things that would need to be sold, and hopefully more cash in the bank that we're living off of. What's left will go to who we feel has done the best with their life, not the ones who want something for free and spend all their time making excuses for not working towards anything.
