What kinds of things do siblings usually fight over?
It tends to be the things with emotional value. I was just involved in a meeting where there was a fight over a mother’s fingernail polish collection. She had these big long talons and was always known for having them painted up in an interesting way, and the daughters were at each other’s throats about it. So it’s often the emotional stuff and not the “big ticket” items — not the bank accounts and the things you would expect. Why don’t children talk to their parents about these things? I think that on the children’s side, and also sometimes on the parent’s side, there’s a superstition around wills and estate-planning documents — you think that if you have one, you’re going to die. For a lot of people it’s a matter of facing their own mortality. People also think, “I won’t be there to see the mess, so who cares?” There are a lot of reasons to be que será-ish about it. But for aging parents, preparing the papers is a way to feel that they have some control over the future. This wasn’t
