Carrying on as your kid
What a will changes, what the estate tax takes, and whether to pick the eight-year-old or the fifty-year-old.
When you die
- The game names what actually wore you down, and the death screen tells your life story.
- The death notice comes first, then the estate settles.
Without a will
- Debts come out first and never pass to anyone; an estate can reach zero but not go negative.
- Anything above $500,000 is taxed at 15%.
- A surviving spouse takes half and the children split the rest equally — even a child you never spoke to. Anyone else (an unmarried partner of twenty years, a parent, a best friend) gets nothing.
With a will
- Make a will with a lawyer: do-it-yourself, budget, estate or top firm. The lawyer sets the fee; a top firm can also lower (never remove) the estate tax.
- A will can leave money, a particular home or a whole business to a particular person. A home or business passes in kind only if the estate can carry it after debts and tax; otherwise it is sold.
- People react to what you leave them, and a will can be contested at death.
- Heirs keep their partners and their JobFinder jobs.
Picking a child
- You can carry on as any of your children, in the same world with the same people. They start with what you left them.
- A young child is a long game; an adult child is a short one with a head start.
- Your old character stays in the family tree, the news archive and the charts.