Mediation is a way to resolve a dispute, be it a legal conflict or estate planning. And it is one of the most powerful medium of dispute redressal when you opt-out of the legislation. This is such a powerful tool that two parties can reach an agreement even in an extremely complicated legal dispute. When it’s about estate planning, the process of transferring wealth from children, this comes in handy.
However, in most cases, instead of being an occasion of celebration, it leads to a lot of legal disputes and dilemmas. To maximize the gains from dispute redressal, both parties are often involved in a years-long legal procedure that makes a bitter one. But with the help of an expert mediator, one can expedite the process to fine-tune the issues, which could lead to resolving all financial troubles at a go.
Lack of Communication
When it comes to transferring a sizable wealth to multiple descendants, lack of communication complicates the issues. Well, nobody wants to be on the losing side when one descendant is benefiting from a deal while others aren’t. Although parents spend a lot of time consulting the financial advisors, attorneys, and litigators for a possible hassle-free property transfer, often things don’t go as smooth as we want them to. Numerous allegations, misinformation, claims, and counterclaims amongst families make this into a horror story!
Things take an ugly turn when one or more attorneys manipulate the will. And to a great extent, lack of communication seemed to be the father of all these issues. While transferring the property or setting estates, formal communication could be a tool to wipe out many misperceptions. It helps in claims to settle the issue once and for all. And for this, it is necessary to change the communication patterns in a few cases. Estate planning could be a hard one, but things will only get better with time with proper day-to-day communication.
Conflict of Interest and How to Remove that
Open dialogue between the parents and their adult offspring who will be the recipient of the property will greatly help. The healthy relationship between the predecessor and successor can only be guaranteed when both parties have adequate financial information regarding the entire estate and its valuation. Suppose the decedent parties do not have the precise information about the property. In that case, the chances are high that somebody, even the attorney himself, will feed them some half-baked or misinformation.
They can be victims of the potential malpractice of family attorney financial advisors, and the ancestor party. This will give birth to the potential conflict of interest and make the situation a complicated one. When a specialized attorney or mediator has a deep understanding of what’s going on, he or she can take the necessary steps to resolve the dispute. So whoever is going to mediate between the two parties, it is always advisable to communicate to both parties and try to keep them at the same table to accelerate the transfer of the right transparently. Parents are open up in front of their spouses to negotiate demands as well.
The Purpose of Mediators in Estate-Planning
The role of a mediator in the estate-planning procedure is crucial. It is important to appoint an industry expert as a mediator to ensure there is no bias against any one party. Besides, the arbitrator should also be able to deliver a solution quickly. The mediator must satisfy the demand of both parties to bury the matter decisively. The mediators must position themselves so they can act as neutral individuals. Doing so, will help them come to an unbiased conclusion that will benefit all the parties involved!
This is why a mediator must acquire substantial expertise in this field to have a deeper understanding of the case. Therefore, the role of a mediator is pivotal to achieve a successful resolution even in most contentious conflicts.
Human psychology is something that often seems difficult to perceive at a go. Even the most experienced attorney or lawyers may get tangled in a dispute regarding estate-planning that requires an expert mediator to resolve. Mediators not only resolve a financial dispute, but sometimes they can also work and fix relationships too. And their dispute resolution can hone the bond between people in a family too!