Customer Reviews

Beyond the Grave revised edition: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money To Your Children (and Others)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first rule of estate planning might be: Don't ever die. The second rule: If you can't follow the first rule, plan ahead. If you have wealth that will be around longer than you are, spend some serious time thinking about who's going to get it when you go.

I am a professional money manager and the subject of inheritance planning is something I deal with every day. But "Beyond the Grave" opened my eyes to some potential problems and solutions that I hadn't thought of. And after some soul-searching, the book prompted me to change the way I will leave my own estate to my family.

I love the way the authors filled their book not with legal jargon but with stories of their clients. Some did things the right way, others made mistakes. But the lawyers learned from every case, and thanks to this book, I learned too.

Any parent who's disappointed at a son or daughter could take delight in the story called "Our Rotten Children" in which a couple accomplished their own goals - and some of their children's goals - in a most unexpected way. The two married sons and a daughter seemed to be waiting around for their parents to die so they could collect sizeable inheritances from the parents' $30 million real estate empire.

The parents devised a clever inheritance plan to force their chronically unemployed offspring to "get a life." Without spoiling the story I can relate that one result showed up almost immediately: the two daughters-in-law filed for divorce, figuring that - if there was no seven- or eight-figure inheritance in their future - they had little reason to stick with their ne'er-do-well husbands.

The authors repeatedly demonstrate the merits of what I think could be called "smart generosity" to children and grandchildren. In anecdote after anecdote, they show the benefits of treating siblings equally and of thinking ahead of time about how to preserve not only assets but family relationships and harmony as well.

If you have wealth to leave, I can almost guarantee you'll find an interesting idea or two in this book that you haven't thought about. If your parents haven't talked to you about their own plan, you might consider giving them a copy of "Beyond the Grave."

This book gets you thinking about all the pitfalls in deciding who you should leave your money to, and with what stipulations. How do you avoid the mistakes other people have made?

I have read about 9 estate planning books and talked to one attorney. This book gave me crucial advice that I did not find anywhere else. The stories and advice changed my mind about what I will do, because I have learned from the dozens of situations Mr. Condon experienced over the years.

The book is not a masterpiece. And you may need one or two other books to round out your knowledge. However, it is clearly written, well organized, and rather entertaining.

I give it 4-1/2 stars, and suggest it as required reading for anyone creating a will.

~~> Check your library or the used copies page on amazon.

The advice dispensed in this book is some of the most valuable I have ever read. I thought I knew what I was doing and told myself I would use this book to "double check" myself. What I learned two chapters in showed that I was making classic mistakes that would pit others against each other and dissolve relationships. Although the book is meticulous in its detail only some of the situations would apply to any one person, but still 5 stars because the info is of such a high caliber. Highest recommendation.

I recently bought the book "Beyond the Grave" just after my second parent passed away and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to read about such a morbid subject. I only wish my parents would have taken the advice from the Condons and had left their inheritance equally to me and my 5 siblings so that no feelings would have been hurt when distributing items listed in the family trust. I highly recommend parents of all ages to read this book and use it as a guideline for their living trust.

I first read Beyond the Grave some years ago. I thought it was incitefull and touched on the human aspect of transferring wealth that was missing in other books that I read on this subject. I read it again recently. This time my personal situation had changed and I had a specific need for the kind of information. I found that it was written in a form that seemed to me as "personal advice".I was pleased that I could zero in on particular aspects of the book because of how wonderfully organized it was. I was further impressed by the detail of all aspects of a given question and how easily I could apply it to my personal situation. I almost felt that I was having a dialog with the Condons.
The book is full of important advice for making difficult decisions that can effect the lives of your loving beneficiaries after you are gone. Information and ideas that I could not have thought of without the assistance of this book. I holdheartedly recommend this book.

I borrowed this book from a friend and I did not want to give it back to her. Do not put your will together until you first read this book. This should be required reading before wills are made. The authors even put their phone number in the back and say that it's okay to call them...for free. I called the number and talked to Jeff Condon...a real nice guy. I told him that I thought his book was terrific and asked him questions. He was really helpful, even though I thought I took too much of his time. GET THIS BOOK!

I have been looking for a book like this for a while and stumbled across it in the public library. I read it cover to cover in a couple of hours. Easy to read, yet so full of practical info you will be dog-earing each page. I am in my late thirties and have learned so much that I plan to give this book to my parents. The real life scenarios make you think. You'll get wonderful ideas as to how to structure your own inheritance plan and how to approach your parents and help them get the information they need.

I just want to "echo" the reviews of Beyond the Grave found here on Amazon. I was about to get Shenkman's book, but then I read an Amazon review of his book which said to forget the Shenkman book and get the Condon book. Very readable, practical and, if you can believe it, funny! Condon really knows how to get the information across to us regular people. I don't know how the Condon book compares to other inheritance books, but do yourself a favor and start with the Condon book.

I have never written a review before on Amazon, but I must take the time to recommend BEYOND THE GRAVE. I saw the author, Jeff Condon, talking about inheritances on television and thought nothing more about it until I stumbled on it on senior living website. So I got it, and I am so glad I did. The Condons write the book as if they are talking to the reader while he is sitting in their office. I understood everything they had say because they don't write like lawyers. And it is also very entertaining. I never expected to laugh out loud while reading a book on inheritances, but I did. I especially liked the Condons' horse-sense approach to the subject and I walked away from it with a lot of things I can discuss with my lawyer to prepare an amendment to my trust. I have looked at a few other inheritance books, but they simply do not compare. So I say, if you are interested in this topic, you must get this book.

This book presents a lot of potentially confusing information in an easy-to-read format with practical examples. It apporpriately encourages you to use the book as a starting point for talking with an estate planning professional. This isn't a "how to" book. You'll be a much more informed consumer of estate planning services if you read this book