How a memoir can put a family at odds.
In a deeply personal and public account, journalist Tracie McMillan revealed how her father disinherited her after she included family history in her memoir, The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America. The disinheritance came via a handwritten letter in July 2023, stating: “If you insist to tell these stories as truth and put them in your book, you will never get any more money from me… I don’t want any contact — no calls, texts, emails, etc.” (Source: The Cut.)
This is how McMillan’s publisher (Macmillan Publishers) markets the book: “McMillan begins with her own downwardly mobile middle-class family and takes us through a personal history marked with abuse, illness, and poverty, while training her journalistic eye on the benefits she saw from being white. McMillan then alternates her story with profiles of four other white subjects, millennials to baby boomers, from across the United States.”
McMillan had been slated to inherit $350,000 from a trust established in 2022. But when she chose to write candidly about her family’s racial and financial privilege, her father saw it as betrayal. She interpreted the inheritance as a “payment for my silence” and ultimately chose sharing her story over the money.
What is the lesson here?
This case illustrates the emotional leverage inheritances can carry and the ethical dilemmas they may pose. For professionals advising clients, it’s a reminder that estate planning is not just financial—it’s deeply personal. Encouraging open dialogue and documenting intentions clearly can help prevent such painful outcomes, and litigation. If you suspect your estate planning client is headed for this type of schism, consider a consultation with The Estate Lawyers. Our deep experience litigating — or avoiding litigation — may help ameliorate a potentially volatile situation.