The TOP 3 Must Have in Every Trust:
- Protection Against Predatory Remarriages
- Protect Your Children’s Inheritance
- Incorporating Values into your Living Trust
How Does Your Trust Protect Against Predatory Remarriage
Does your trust provide strong protection for your surviving spouse? You found the love of your life; now let’s protect him or her after you are gone. Does your living trust have built-in provisions that address the possibility a new spouse after your death – the danger of your spouse squandering it all away to the “Gold Digger” in a predatory remarriage situation, creditors, lawsuits, or maybe your surviving spouse temporarily lapse of poor judgement.
We want your living trust to provide all the financial comfort and stability for your surviving spouse. Your living trust should be drafted to allow you to pass all your assets to your surviving spouse without incurring any estate tax but at the same time provide protective measures against your spouse falling victim to the spouse (whose name you don’t even know his or her name—but yet enjoying your money). Your trust should allow the first spouse to die to have a certain amount of control from beyond the grave. Your trust should protect against predatory remarriage and ultimately ensure your kids receive your hard-earned money and will not pay tax upon the last parent to die, known as the stepped-up basis.
These same provisions should also prevent elder abuse as well. As we age, we grow fragile and could easily fall victim of undue influence to the caretaker or a bad actor. Bottom line: your trust should allow you both to comfortably enjoy your hard-earned money, pass what is left over to your children in a tax-free manner.
Protect Your Children’s Inheritance
Many good children lose their inheritance for various reasons, such as divorce, bankruptcy, lawsuits, creditors, or just flat-out financial immaturity. These are legitimate concerns. Half of all marriages end in divorce. We live in a litigious society with millions of lawsuits filed every year. Almost all living trusts do just enough to avoid probate. The trusts get the money to the children BUT how you deliver the money to the children is crucial in case they run into a conman, fortune hunter, greedy spouse or a third party who is suing your kid. So the big question is, will your Living Trust properly protect your children. Many trusts are set up so that the children receive what is known as an outright distribution – a big pile of cash—after you died. But a big pile of cash immediately may be WRONG if your beneficiaries are too young, have a drug or alcohol problem, or they are not good at handling money. Now, even if your children are A+ citizens, they could still face divorce, creditors, bankruptcy, lawsuits.
Incorporating Values into Your Living Trust
So here we are talking about: Are there important values you want to make sure are instilled in your children after you are gone? This video so far talks about preserving your assets for your children, but your living trust can pass down more than just money/asset, you can relay your value to your children as well. Once you identify your value, we can help you incorporate those values into your living trust. For instance, some of your values might be education, positive goals for your children to accomplish, charity, or incentivize certain behavior. Money isn’t the only important aspect in a living trust but family value is just as important to pass on to your children.
I am a State Bar Certified Estate Planning Specialist and a CPA, please let us know how we can help your family develop an amazing estate planning to protect your loved one.