Why wait until you die?
First things first: Remember you do not have to wait until you die to give money away.
Of course, you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of funds to live on and cover medical costs that could climb as you get older. However, $10 million plus a cliffside villa means you have more than enough to provide for yourself for the rest of your life.
Rather than waiting until you pass on, why not do something with that cash now? If you have the interest, time and desire, you could start a charitable foundation of your own. Or you could do things like arrange a scholarship fund with your alma mater, fund a project for a cause you care about, or do anything else you desire.
With a fortune as large as yours, you could contribute an endowment fund to a university, arts organization, research center or other institution. That would allow your investment to grow over time and continually be put back into the community in perpetuity.
Giving a gift to a charity now rather than after you die would allow you to see the benefits of your contributions in real time. That could be one of the best uses of your funds.
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Whether or not you decide to give away some cash before you die, the fact remains that you're likely to still pass on with a lot of money left over. If that's the case, working with an estate planning lawyer to decide what to do with it is likely the best move.
There’s no limit to the number of beneficiaries you can name in your will, so even though you don’t have anyone close to you in your life now, think about people you’ve known over the years who have been meaningful, helpful or memorable to you. A gift of a few thousand dollars might not seem like much to you, but it could be life-changing for someone else and would leave them with something to remember you by. Think of the person who cleans your villa, a neighbor who has been helpful as you’ve gotten older, or even the family of a childhood friend.
You should still have plenty of money — millions! — to invest in the future, in the form of charitable giving. If so, you could create a charitable trust rather than just making the charity a beneficiary in your will. There are several types of trusts to choose from, but in general trusts offer more control than wills because they allow you to put stipulations on how your money is spent, to make sure it is being used for your intended purpose.
Ultimately, having too much money at the end of your life is a good problem to have. However, if you don't want the state or some distant relative you've never heard of to end up with your fortune, start giving it away now or work with an attorney to give it away to charities most effectively later.
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