How to Avoid Cutting the Painting in Half
Many parents wish to bequeath their assets to their children in equal shares, yet they don’t consider that a plethora of valuable assets would become worthless if equally divided. How do you dispose of a painting, a family heirloom, or a diamond ring when a parent with multiple children owns one of each item? Estate planning documents must be drafted to avoid beneficiaries fighting about who should be the rightful owner of such assets.
The Bible, unsurprisingly, tells of one of the most famous feuds between two people over something that cannot be divided. In the Book of Kings, two women argued before King Solomon that the same newborn son belonged to her. To resolve the dispute, the king declared, “[c]ut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” 1 Kings 3:25.
In fact, the king’s horrific order constituted a test to determine the identity of the baby’s real mother. However, in our modern world without monarchs and with a backlogged judicial system, legal documents must provide clarity regarding the distribution of assets that cannot be equally divided.
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