Food for thought…The tighter/restrictive/complicated you make a living trust, the more burden it is to find an executor of the trust to enforce it…Every condition you put on the money means your kid will have to contact the executor to approve/dispprove of the fund…The executor can/will charge your kid a fee to talk to them, a fee to move the money around, a fee to email them back telling them money is available. a fee for etc etc etc..every single time……After you die, do you want to take a guess how much an lawyer will charge your kids for them to answer just 1 email or request for distribution?
I’ll give you a hint..American service/labor ain’t cheap. Just look at your last plumber’s bill. Multiple that by 3x times and that’s how much an attorney will bend you over…
While your intentions are good to make sure your money isn’t going to be misused by your kids, I’m pretty confident that the money is more likely to be sucked away faster by everyone else that wants a hand on it.. lawyers, accountants, money managers, executors of that trust…..Unless you end up giving all that responsibility to a trusted friend or relative who’s willing to do it for free, which in itself can have issues too, since they can rightfully charge an “administration” fee too and ream your kid’s estates…. Personally, I’d rather take a gamble my kid will do the right think versus thinking some random person will do a better job, knowing that random person’s only interest it to make money off of your estate.
Unless we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars, I think you’re better off educating your kids now about financial responsibility, letting the make big decisions now that demonstrate their responsibilities (or lack there of), and taking your chances directly on your kids, than taking your chances on some other stranger who will enforce a complicated estate plan throughout the years. If anyone is gonna waste your money, it’s better that your kids do it than everyone else. Since you know everyone else definitely will.
