Downs Law Firm, P.C.
There are many stories of strange conditions in wills and trusts over time. For example, the German poet Heinrich ‘Henry’ Heine died in 1856 and left his estate to his wife, Matilda, on the condition that she remarry, so that ‘there will be at least one man to regret my death’.
A pot trust is a type of trust that lists children as beneficiaries, with the trustee using his or her discretion as to how trust assets should be spent. If you have minor children, you might consider setting up a pot trust to meet their financial needs, if something should happen to you. This type of trust allows you to create a single pool of assets to be used for the benefit of multiple children.
Whatever the reason, whether your life is a bed of roses or a getting-worse-nightmare, there are things you can do now to insure what you leave will go to who you want. And when. And in what portion or portions.
When you hear the word trust fund, you might think of wealthy kids a big chunk of cash on their 25th birthday. However, trust funds aren’t just for the rich. They are flexible tools to protect your loved ones.
Especially with the average U.S. household having $7,027 in revolving credit card debt and Americans owing a total of $416.1 billion in credit card debt, according to a recent Nerdwallet study, some Americans will have credit card debt for the rest of their lives. However, what happens to credit card debt when you die?
When dealing with the emotional pain of the loss of a loved one, family members also have to address daunting administrative tasks.
Tenancy by the entirety, commonly abbreviated as TBE, is an ownership structure for real estate that’s used when the owners are a married couple. Under a TBE arrangement, each spouse owns an equal interest in the property, and the property will transfer seamlessly to the surviving spouse, in the event of one spouse’s death.
If you have updated your estate plan during the Covid crisis and even found a way to sign your documents while maintaining social distance, do not overlook the last step of trust funding.
By discussing finances with your children early and often you can set them—and future generations—up for success, when it’s time to receive the wealth you’ve accrued.
Take, for example, the sad and sordid tax case of Mary Ellen Cranmer Nice vs. United States of America, which would not have existed if an attentive financial advisor hadn’t noticed the large IRA distributions that were allegedly stolen right from under a matriarch’s nose.
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