Watching my family argue over an inheritance was enough to change my mind about estate planning

I'm 33, live in Chicago and got engaged earlier this year estate planning was never something I thought much about I always figured it was something you dealt with after retirement. My uncle passed away a few months ago he owned a duplex had around 650k between his retirement accounts and investments and everyone assumed he'd already taken care of everything so he hadn't.

Now my mom and her two brothers can't agree on what he would've wanted one wants to sell the house another thinks it should stay in the family and everyone keeps bringing up conversations they had with him over the years the problem is nobody remembers those conversations the same way so last weekend we all had dinner together and the whole table kind of got quiet when it came up again. I don't know none of them are bad people but they all think they're doing what he would've wanted but nobody can really prove it.

Seeing all this changed the way I look at estate planning I used to think it was mostly about money now it feels more like giving your family clear answers so they don't end up arguing and trying to fill in the blanks after you're gone it's one of those things that seems easy to put off until your family is the one dealing with the consequences.