This New York Times article does a good job of highlighting a bad-case scenario where there wasn’t enough communication about financial affairs between a mother and her daughters. Although it can often be difficult, I almost always encourage my clients to talk with their adult children about their estate plan and their wishes. Often, we will set up a family meeting where the parents will bring in their adult children (sometimes college age; sometimes older) to ask any questions they would like and understand how things might work if their parents were to become ill. Some parents choose to lay EVERYTHING on the table including the size of their estate. Others prefer to share details about their wishes, but aren’t quite ready to be completely transparent about private matters.