Estate Planning Attorney
Many clients plan to leave assets to people in their mid-twenties, basically young adults. When an estate planning attorney asks whether they trust these young people with their inheritances, the answer is often “yes!” After all, these are young people they know, respect, and love. But are you really sure? Probe just a bit further to be sure the answer takes into account the likely context of the inheritance.
Specifically, many people leave assets to certain people and only if those people are dead, do the assets go to the next generation – the young adults. Having a parent die is a profoundly life altering event. Considering the fact that these young beneficiaries have had a parent die, do you still trust these young beneficiaries with their inheritances?
Sometimes receiving an inheritance at a vulnerable point in life, or when you are too young to properly manage it, can result in yet another major loss to the young beneficiary. This additional loss can result in a lifelong sense of grief and regret. As explained by Two Spruce Law, placing assets in trust until these relatively young beneficiaries are at least age, for example, 30, can offer a better result for them in the long run. It affords them invaluable time to adjust to the reality of the inheritance without being able to spend it haphazardly.
