We Just Want It to Be Fair: Defining Financial Priorities in Blended Families

In blended families, the statement “we want it to be fair” may conceal materially different definitions of fairness between spouses. Moving directly from that statement to technical estate-planning solutions can result in recommendations built around an objective the clients never actually defined together. This course teaches planners to elicit, translate, and reconcile competing definitions of fairness into clear financial-planning objectives before technical strategies are selected or referred for legal implementation.

By the end of this course, you will be better prepared to:

• Differentiate among alternative client definitions of fairness in blended-family financial and legacy planning.

• Translate broad client value statements into specific, modelable financial-planning objectives.

• Analyze independently stated objectives to identify material conflicts requiring resolution before technical planning strategies are selected.