As you write your will, you start thinking about how different beneficiaries may use the inheritance that you are leaving to them. You may have concerns about one beneficiary in particular because they are relatively young. Perhaps they are in college, just 18 or 19 years old.
You want to leave them an inheritance, but you are not sure they will make the wisest decisions with how they spend the money at this age. Is there any way that you could delay the transfer of those assets so that they get them when they are a bit older?
Using a trust
One way to do this is to put the money into a trust. With other beneficiaries, you may simply list them in your will, but that means they get the money immediately. If you list the beneficiary who is 19 and you pass away tomorrow, they will get those funds as soon as the estate executor can distribute them.
If you instead put the money into a trust, you can then name a trustee to oversee the trust. You can designate what age you would like the beneficiary to be when they receive their inheritance — or just a portion of it.
For example, perhaps you want to allow the person to have 10% of their inheritance immediately, but not get the next 30% until they turn 25. Once they turn 30, then they get the remaining 60%. Not only does this help to spread the money out, but it means that they may get it at an age where they use it very differently, such as starting a business or buying a home.
This is just one way that you can use a trust to affect distributions in your estate plan. Having experienced estate planning guidance will help you find the best estate planning tools for your specific needs.