Wednesday, January 8, 2014
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: I feel like I’m being punished for following the rules. On a recent trip with Delta Airlines, I checked my bag at the check-in counter. Later, as I boarded the plane, I noticed a number of people checking their bags at the gate. I asked one of them why, and she said that it was faster, that she didn’t have to pay the $25 baggage fee and that she could pick up her bag at the arrival gate instead of having to wait in baggage claim. Should I really keep paying $25 to check my bag?
DEAR R.J.R.: Only if your goal is to win Delta’s selfless customer of the year award. If it’s OK with the airline for passengers to check their bags for free at the gate, then there’s no reason why you should pay for the privilege of waiting in line out front to check them and later waiting at the baggage carousel at your destination to pick them up. Happy travels.
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: We are not fond of our son-in law. So what my wife and I would like to do is ensure that when our daughter “Kendra” inherits our money, it will be used only for her benefit. We’ve written and notarized a letter expressing our wishes, and have made it a part of our trust. And we’re thinking of having the trust set up accounts for Kendra at, for example, women’s clothing stores. What else could we do?
DEAR HARRY: Maybe your trust could pay a fat retainer to a divorce lawyer, just in case your daughter sees the light.
Seriously, forget about trying to micromanage your trust and your daughter from the grave. If Kendra wants to share your money with her husband, she probably can find a way to do it, no matter what steps you take. What you can do, however, is buy your daughter assets you know she wants and is unlikely to give up, no matter how much her husband pressures her (diamonds? artwork? a vacation home?). One more thing: Be sure to make that letter you’re appending to your trust politic. There’s nothing wrong with writing to tell Kendra that the money you and your wife accumulated is for the daughter you love, but everything wrong with using your letter to attack the man she chose to marry.
Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz are the authors of Isn’t It Their Turn to Pick Up the Check? Dealing With All of the Trickiest Money Problems Between Family and Friends (Free Press, 2008). Email them at [email protected]
Family, Pages 35 on 01/08/2014