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iQuestions Faculty, Ron Blue 
 
 
Question: 
 
Why are wealth transfer decisions so difficult? 
 
Answer: 
 
I’ve seen more tragedy in the area of wealth transfer or estate 
planning than any other area of the financial counsel that I’ve given. 
 
In an awful lot of the cases, it’s really not about money. My wife and I 
have lived long enough that our parents have died, and we’ve had 
several aunts and uncles that have died. I remember when my wife’s 
mother died, there was almost a fight, if you will, between her sisters 
over who got her dishes. This was such a big deal. It wasn’t about 
money, it was about something else. 
 
When my father went into the hospital for the last time, he knew that 
he wasn’t going to come out of the hospital. He was conscious, and he 
had all of his faculties about him, and I was at his bedside two days 
before he ultimately passed away, and I remember that he was very 
nervous, and he wanted to talk to me, but he didn’t know necessarily 
what to say, so I helped him start the conversation.  
 
What his concern was that he had helped my brother, my youngest 
brother, and myself buy cars when we were teenagers, but he had 
never, ever helped the middle brother get a car. What he wanted to 
make sure happened was that the middle brother got his car. 
 
Now, dad didn’t leave a major estate, but he wanted to treat us all 
equally—but he wanted my brother to be treated unequally, if you will. 
And that was obviously fine with my youngest brother and myself. 
 
 
 
The point is that when it comes to things, there’s probably more that 
goes on from a wealth-transfer standpoint than what it is with money. 
 
However, I know of a family—I was told this by a bank trust officer—
where a man died a multi-billionaire. There are 32 heirs to that billion-
dollar fortune. It’s now into the third and the fourth generation of 
when that billion dollars was created. This trust officer said to me, of 
the 32 heirs of that fortune, only one is leading a productive life. 
 
So, when it comes to wealth-transfer and estate planning, there’s a lot 
of things that create complexity and difficulty.  
 
Let me just give you a few. How can you help your heirs without 
harming them? Is there some way that I can transfer some amount of 
wealth without harming those that I’m transferring that wealth to? 
 
What about sibling rivalry? Am I going to create sibling rivalry when it 
comes to the wealth transfer situation or the things that are 
transferred? 
 
How can I manage the expectations of those who are my heirs? 
 
You know, Judy and I have five children, and we have three sons-in-
law and two daughters-in-law, and we have several grandchildren. 
Well, how do we manage their expectations relative to the estate and 
the wealth that we have accumulated? How do you provide for your 
spouse? How do you provide for the kingdom? If you happen to have a 
business, how do you provide for the succession of the business? How 
do I make sure that I finish strong? What about the legal and tax 
complexities? 
 
And then the biggest one is, I probably don’t know when I’m going to 
die, so it’s an uncertain timing.  
Blue -2- 
 
 
 
Wealth transfer is extremely difficult, and these are just a few of the 
issues that make it very, very difficult. You’re going to need to look at 
some other resources to find the answers to all of these questions—but 
there are answers to the questions, and wealth transfer and estate 
planning should begin now, not as you get close to death. 
 
  
 
 
 
Blue -3- 
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