Russ, that's a tough one. My situation is different in many ways but similar in some respects. Warren Buffet once famously said, "I'll leave my children enough for them to do something but not enough for them to do nothing". Sounds very similar to your philosophy. As you know, my son is a founding partner in a small but prosperous venture capital company. They were backed from the beginning by Goldman-Sachs and later by other investors. His net worth is at least 10 times mine and growing. My daughter majored in Art ('nuff said), is generous to a fault, and anything I left her would eventually wind up in the pockets of her friends. My two grandsons have and will continue to have, a privilledged life and don't really need anything from us, and although we have left them 50k/ea, it is mostly a token acknowledgement that me MIGHT be remotely related . The rest of my family is comfortable enough that they don't really need anything from us and wouldn't be expecting anything anyway. We paid $5k to have a lawyer draw up a will with free modifications and updates for life. I think this is smart as the 'snapshot' Will you draw up today may not express your wishes 1,2,3 years down the road (situations change). My son will be the ultimate administrator of our will and we have made provisions for three seperate situations: 1. I die first 2. My wife dies first (unlikely) and 3. we go out together (car accident or murder/suicide ).

In the end, I'm not sure I really care what happens after I'm gone. I'll have to give it more thought. Maybe, if I have sufficient notice, I'll make one final post on Synthzone and let all my 'friends' know what I REALLY think about arranger keyboards .

chas