Instead of hoping for a huge inheritance when you pull on the Thanksgiving turkey's wishbone, experts say it would be wiser to use the family get-together to discuss estate planning.
Holidays are an excellent time to start conversations about family finances because siblings are usually gathered with their parents, certified financial planner MaryAnne Gucciardi told CNBC for a report Wednesday.
As parents age, it's important for them to have a plan in place before they get sick or show signs of dementia, said Gucciardi, a financial adviser at Wealthmind Financial Planning in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"You want to catch things early and proactively and preemptively, so that you know what they want and you can advocate for them," Gucciardi said.
And because research has shown that Americans don't like taking about their finances, David Peterson, head of advanced wealth solutions at Fidelity, told CNBC that strategy may be necessary.
"What I like to do is start with small topics and build up to the bigger topics," Peterson said.
One way into a conversation is to talk about your estate plan and ask your parents for their advice, which can indicate whether they've developed their own, Peterson said.
Another method involves bringing up examples of friends or relatives who died with estate plans that were either organized or a mess, and discussing how that affected their survivors, Peterson said.
There are various ways of transferring assets, including through a will or by designating beneficiaries. But without making those arrangements, a person's estate gets divided according to state law.
"The question is: Do you want to be the one making the decisions?" Peterson said. "Usually, when you ask it that way, you get an answer that suggests that they want to be the ones in charge."
Gucciardi also recommends books including "Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate?" "Crucial Conversations" and "Being Mortal."
But whatever you do, it's unlikely one conversation will suffice.
"Don't go into it thinking that you're going to solve it all this particular holiday," Peterson said.
