When two of my siblings were at a stage of being married and settling down, my parents decided to start the process of giving the bulk of their inheritance away before they die. At that time, my oldest sister lived next door to my parent's house. My parents came up with the plan to divide their property, give the empty lot to my brother and family to built a house in which they have a livelong "granny suite" and their own home went to my other sister and her husband to live in. She had to take on a mortgage and pay out my oldest sister and me. The discussions about that solution were long and hard. My oldest sister, who was well off, being a physician married to a physician, showed the worst of fears- stating that, if the parents would have to go into a nursing home within 5 years of this deal, she ( and I), would loose all that money , because the German bureaucracy would claim it back to pay for the parents care, while they would not touch the other siblings properties. Saying that in front of the parent's faces was an ugly thing to do and it split the family for some years until my father's stroke united us again.
It made me think that trying to do this brought out feelings that otherwise happen after the funeral and it might not be so wise to live through it. My parents ended up doing it that way, despite the bad feelings. Everybody signed it. The money made it possible for me to eventually come to Canada.
