Islamic Estate Planning Attorney

Islamic Inheritance

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New: Estate Tax Planning Guide for American Muslims

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I have been an Islamic Estate Planning Attorney for 15 years now (and a lawyer for 21), and for a decade a certified specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate.  One of the most important parts of Estate Planning is protecting legacies from the Federal Estate Tax.  Because of law changes this is less a big deal now than it was when I started.  Even so, the idea that you can take millions of dollars in tax liability and make it disappear may seem like magic to some, a little shady to others.  I want to demystify it.

My website has several articles on Islamic Inheritance, Islamic Estate Planning, Charitable Planning and other areas of planning.  I wrote a whole lot about the federal estate tax and how to plan for it in my American Bar Association Book, “Estate Planning for the Muslim Client.”

I have created a new guide for people who are concerned their estates may be subject to the Federal Estate Tax.  There are several different strategies that I use.  The goal of this guide is in simple terms, and without the use of needless jargon, and show how it is possible to save many millions of dollars in the estate tax (for people who have millions of dollars to save).  This money can be used for families, charity and for (hopefully) doing good and beneficial things.

You can read the Estate Tax Planning Guide for Muslims here.  Of course, most people reading this just need to make sure they are doing right by their loved ones and planning according to Islam.  You may want to discuss this too.

If you want to schedule a 15-minute mini-consultation to discuss your Islamic Inheritance planning, click here.

Fixing Estrangement Among Muslims

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Fixing estrangement among Muslim families

As an Islamic Estate Planning Attorney, I have become a student of family estrangement. I have seen much of it. In my past litigation work, my cases tended to be inheritance disputes between siblings. These disputes would frequently cause ruptures in families that are likely to last for generations.

In Islam, shares of inheritance are ordained. Many of the complaints inherent in family disputes that arise from inheritance do not exist when individuals plan correctly in a manner consistent with the Islamic inheritance rules. It is a wondrous and beautiful thing.

Fault Lines- my latest favorite book

Occasionally, I may come across a book and think to myself, “what a remarkable contribution to humanity.” The book by Karl Pillemer, Ph.D., “Fault Lines“-really is that. It is about mending fractured families. When brothers and sisters, cousins, nephews and uncles, parents and children, and other relatives cut each other off (“I’m done”), the effect is more than a momentary catharsis.  It is a wrecking ball for your family.

Pillemer, among other reasons, discusses a lack of “legacy thinking.” When a brother decides, in a huff, that he is not going to speak to his brother anymore, he is not only cutting off that relationship. He is cutting off everything that comes after it. He denies the ability of cousins to grow up together. Family is social capital. That includes leaning on a broad group of people for advice, contacts, and a myriad of resources. If you have a large family where people get along and love each other, that is wealth. Robbing people of that wealth is a moral crime.

In the Quran (obviously, Pillemer does not cover this), Allah has condemned those who have severed family ties. 

In a hadith, it was reported Muhammad (sws) said

“No sin deserves quicker punishment from Allah Almighty for its doer in the world, along with what is prepared for him in the Hereafter, than transgression and severing family ties” (Tirmidhī).

Estrangement is super-common 

According to the author’s survey, about 27% of Americans admitted to estrangement from a relative.  About 10% of parents and children were estranged.  About 85% of those estranged had been for a year or more. 

Estrangement is a massive problem.  I know from my clients that estrangement is a chronic problem in the Muslim community.  It is also a more solvable problem than you might think.  

Pillemer based his book on the author’s study on fractured families and how they reconciled. It provides concrete strategies that many people have used to develop better relationships among their family members. Some of the author’s stories include reconcilers where family members have acted in toxic, abusive and even criminal ways.  There is a whole lot I can say about this book, and I expect to go back to it several times.  But I want to focus this post on how they happen.

According to Pillemer (and this would be maybe obvious to you after reading it), estrangements happen a few different ways:

The Long Arm of the Past 

  This category includes trauma that is occurred because of challenging circumstances during childhood and adolescence, parental favoritism, or other factors. One of the things to appreciate about this “long arm” is that it is pretty long. Folks can maintain estrangements in ways that seem to transcend time and space.  

For example, it is difficult for some families to identify close relatives (heirs in Islam) because of an estrangement that resulted from partition in the Indian subcontinent.  Partition is a distant historical event that took place over seven decades ago halfway around the world. Yet, the trauma from this still reverberates and is a cause of estrangement.

The legacy of divorce

  Many will identify with this one. Divorce sometimes brings out the worst in people. It is common for children to take sides and to cut off the offending parent. The hostility that continues between the former spouses and other family members may make reconciliation difficult.

The Legacy of Marriage

 Pillemer calls this “the problematic in law.” I would, however, tie this not to either a daughter-in-law or mother-in-law acting in problematic ways.  Instead, it was a marriage that failed add increasing love, kinship, and harmony, for whatever reason.  It treats relationships as a “zero-sum game” where there are winners and losers. There is an ongoing struggle between the “family of origin” and the “family of marriage”- something must give.

I often tell people during my talks on inheritance that the best advice I could ever give about estate planning is not “go to an Islamic Estate Planning lawyer,” “get an Islamic living trust, or “follow the Islamic Rules of Inheritance.” Those are good things you should do. But the most important decision is who you marry.  If you make a mistake here, no lawyer on earth can save you.  

Money and inheritance

Since I am an estate planning attorney, I am intimately familiar with this reason for estrangement, which may be the most common. In some ways, a dispute about money or inheritance is not really about those things. They tend to connect with the “long arm of the past” and every other category here. Money and inheritance disputes tend to be little more than a trigger to a loaded gun.

Unmet Expectations  

Sometimes, family members don’t show up to things they were supposed to, say a wedding or funeral. A younger brother may not speak to his older brother for many years because he had a lame excuse for not showing up at his niece’s wedding. 

Sometimes, people get stubborn about family politics that people not immediately in that situation would have trouble understanding. Sometimes, we need to let things go.  

Values and Lifestyle Differences  

Some who grew up in the same family might have dramatically different values. What’s more, there may now be unmet expectations that those differences need to be affirmed and accepted. The person who does not swallow those values for those expectations becomes “toxic”- a frequent justification for breaking family ties. This dynamic often happens when family members end up becoming lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans.  The child may have left Islam, become an evangelical atheist who cannot stop talking about how idiotic it is to believe in angels, or a Christian who keeps telling his Muslim parents they are going to hell.  

Implications for Inheritance

I have long maintained a policy of turning away clients who want to disinherit their Muslim children.  Children often grow up to be a disappointment to their parents.  That does not give them the right to commit an injustice, either estrangement or disinheritance.  Yes, there is a hadith about non-Muslims not inheriting from Muslims.  This rule of inheritance is part of our fiqh, but that is different from cutting off relations.  I have clients who, despite this rule, do whatever they can to include and be merciful to their non-Muslim children. Sometimes, they do come back to Islam.  

Short of a relative leaving Islam, you cannot “disinherit” a child.  Inheritance is not a tool you can use to persuade your child of a correct course of action or impose on your child views and values they no longer share.  If your child married the wrong person, talks to you in a disrespectful tone or has a tattoo of Harry Potter on her arm, well sometimes those are the breaks.  Inheritance is a right, literally a right ordained by Allah.  It’s not a weapon you can deploy.  At least not in Islam.   

What you should do

If you know anyone afflicted by the scourge of family estrangement, you should check out Pillemer’s book. It’s worth the read.  You can also forward this post if you found it beneficial! 

To discuss getting an Islamic Estate Plan for your family, you can schedule a 15-minute mini-consultation with me by clicking here.  

Contracts are for Stress-Reduction

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Contracts for MuslimsBeing an Islamic Estate Planning Attorney , in large part dealing with a certain kind of contracts, is different from being many other kinds of attorneys in that it is not my goal to stress anybody out.  At least the way I viewed litigation, causing stress in others is part of the fun in the job. You follow the advice of Sun Tzu in the “Art of War”- when your opponent is angry, irritate him. Try to encourage bad decision-making by your opponents.

I no longer have opponents in court. Clients do come, however, because of a certain level of stress that we all have. It can be significant and urgent because of something that happened recently or merely that gnawing feeling knowing that they have loved ones that have they have not yet adequately attended. They love people, care about people and what to do right by those people. Muslim clients want to do right by Allah, follow the command of Allah, and follow the Islamic rules of inheritance, not do anything prohibited.

The primary way we can do this is by the use of trusts.  I have written about them before. However, I have not emphasized how they work and that it is a path to help families through a wide range of stressors because trusts are contracts.  They work so well because of contracts.  Living Trusts are contracts governing how you want your estate managed in the event of either death or incapacity.

Contracts are essential

However, agreements can be helpful to Muslims in a wide range of other situations. Contracts are vital to any civilization. They are how we maintain peace and harmony in our family and business relationships. A fundamental building block of our society, marriage, is built on a contract.  A bank has a fiduciary relationship with you, holding your money, because of a contract. An employer pays you, your cell phone service functions, and you pay your mortgage because of these things you sign. 

Contracts are addressed in the Quran extensively; the most well-known example is the lengthiest verse in the Quran, dealing with installment agreements. 

When families are going through any stress about the future, it is possible to use contracts and creative ways to address those stressors and perhaps make people feel better about the future. There are no guarantees about anything. However, when folks do them correctly, a critical aspect of contracts is the consequences of violating the terms of an agreement.

Contracts in families 

A common form of contract happens towards the end of litigation,  known as a “settlement.” One of the most common forms of litigation families will see a divorce. Divorces are, of course, incredibly stressful. Often, they are compared in similar ways as a death in the family. For many people, it can cause continuing stress about the future for decades. Family dynamics can often range from awkward to toxic. Remarriage, more children, family businesses investments, interfamily loans, and family gatherings can all be political. 

Divorce is often a time when people can get creative about their contracts. For example, who will pay for the children’s college education in 10 to 20 years? If a family business goes into the husband’s control, and he gets remarried, will that new wife get the company? Or the children?

It is possible to draft contracts around these things. It is also possible to create safeguards around these contracts.

Contracts to Make a Will or Living Trust

State law (at least in California, but also elsewhere) allows for the possibility of making contracts to make a will.  It is wrong for Muslims to make a contract to distribute inheritance in any manner that contradicts the Islamic rules. It is, however, possible to make a contract that follows Islamic rules. 

For example, a divorcing wife can mandate that if her husband gets remarried, the new wife may not take more than 1/8th of the value of her ex-husband’s ownership in his estate (this is in the Quran for when there are children).  In this instance, she is worried about her children’s loss of inheritance because of the divorce.   Often, divorce can take a massive toll on children, even if they are adults. It might fracture relationships with one or more parents and commonly results in the disinheritance of children that took one parent’s side or another. Making sure children are taken care of in a divorce settlement is often wise.

Contract to Support a Sister

Going into something a little more novel is the concern that a daughter is getting less inheritance than her brother but might need continuing security and support. In Islam, it is a brother’s responsibility to look after his sister. That is not how American society works, though. In general, through adulthood, there is no legal responsibility for male family members to act as a financial safety net for adult female family members. Under certain circumstances, it is possible to create contracts that do just this.

Contracts are Law

One of the remarkable things about contracts is that to a great extent; everybody can decide what law governs them and create the consequences for violating those rules. They get to make the law. Indeed, we know of the rules in a contract as “the law of the contract.” It is different from “contract law.” Contracts are enforceable under state law with some exceptions, such as violating public policy. 

Contracts are Your Values

Your agreements are an extension of your values. You organize your family, your business relationships, and everything else based on those values. If you ever move on from your marriage or a business partnership, you should always do so in a manner that reflects who you are.

To schedule a 15-minute mini consultation for Islamic estate planning, click here.

Half of All Useful Knowledge for a 13-year-old (Also, Yorba Linda)

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One of the biggest challenges in the Islamic Rules of Inheritance is that the concept is outside of the normal experience for most people. It is not something that we readily understand, nor is it often explained to us being part of Islam.    It is half of all useful knowledge according to a hadith. In my view, there is a desperate need for this knowledge to spread.

I spend much of my time educating people about Islamic Estate Planning one on one. Sometimes, I go through months without ever explaining why it is daughters get half the Inheritance of boys.  Some months, it’s always coming up in conversations.   I recently had a wonderful discussion with a 13-year-old girl, who met with me to answer questions about her father’s Islamic Estate Planning.  But America is different no?  Is the Islamic Estate Planning Attorney a misogynist?  

For those who are open-minded, including young people, these rules and the desire of Muslim family members to follow those rules as obedience to Allah is easy to understand.  Your legacy on this earth is you following the command of Allah; prayer, fasting, charity, Hajj, and doing justice as best as you can with your family, your neighbors, and everybody else.  Doing an injustice as your parting shot as you leave this world is not something a Muslim would ever want to do.

Why are the Rules What they are?

I am not going to pretend to understand why the rules are what they are. I can only explain what they mean to me and how  beneficial these rules are for society. The rules of Inheritance that are in the Sharia are probably not the rules most of us would come up with on our own.   We also won’t come up with praying five times a day on our own.  It’s not about what we would do if we made up our own religion; it is about what Allah has ordained that we do.  Inheritance is too essential to a strong system of families and a community, and we can easily confuse justice with vanity if left to our desires.   In my experience, heirs get this, even if they end up not being especially religious.  

We do our best.  We hope our children think well of us and make dua for us.  We pray we do not raise children who would withhold their prayers for their dead parents that followed Allah’s command on inheritance. I have never heard of that happening before, I doubt you have either.  

Yorba Linda Masjid

I am speaking at the Masjid for the first time since the pandemic sort ended and came back again.  Being back at the Masjid is essential for all of us, including our children.  If you are in or near Yorba Linda, please feel free to bring your family.  I will be talking about Islamic Estate Planning for a relatively short keynote.  Would you please stop by and say Salam if you do come? 

To schedule a 15-minute mini-consultation on Islamic Estate Planning, click here.

A Guide to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

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I have been seeing more and more clients invested in cryptocurrencies. In some instances, it has not done anything yet, but it has been life-changing for them in others. I started learning about cryptocurrencies to understand their appeal and, more importantly, how to do Islamic Estate Planning for them appropriately.  

I have a new Guide/ Frequently Asked Questions on the subject available here. It covers basics for Muslims who are unfamiliar with the relatively new asset class (but also old, since it is, after all, currency) and subjects like storage, succession, and zakat. It is not investment advice. 

Check out the FAQ

Share it with any friends or family members who have been curious about the subject.  

To schedule a 15-minute zoom call to discuss the Islamic Estate Planning Process, click here. Please feel free to share this with anyone else that may benefit from it.