CHILDREN

A Living Trust can do much more than determine who inherits your property. It can also control how and when children receive their inheritance, who manages the assets for them, and what happens if they are too young or otherwise not prepared to manage a substantial inheritance themselves.

Without appropriate planning, leaving assets directly to children can create problems—particularly when the children are minors or when the inheritance is substantial.

A properly designed trust allows you to establish instructions today for how your assets should be managed for your children after your death.

Minor children generally cannot simply take control of substantial inherited property themselves.

If significant assets are left directly to a minor without appropriate planning, additional legal arrangements may be necessary for someone to manage the property until the child reaches the applicable age.

That can mean greater expense, administration and potentially court involvement.

A trust provides another approach.

Instead of giving the property directly to the child, the assets can remain in trust under the management of a trustee you select.

The trustee then manages and distributes the trust assets according to the instructions you established.

You Choose Who Manages the Money

One of the most important decisions in creating a trust for children is selecting the trustee.

The trustee can be responsible for matters such as:

• Managing trust assets
• Investing funds
• Paying appropriate expenses