There are many important steps to go through when doing estate planning. One of the steps we’ve spoken about in the estate planning process is providing for children and dependents. Although it may seem like you have little control over providing for them besides simply leaving money and assets, there are ways to ensure your beneficiaries are provided for long term.

Thornton Law Firm designs all types of plan to help reach the goal of providing for loved ones long-term.

3 precautions you should consider when providing for your beneficiaries long-term are:

  1. Staggering Trust Distributions. A staggered trust is simply a trust with specific stipulations to distribute at certain ages. Two recommendations for a staggering trust would be 25, 30, and 35 or 30, 35, and 40. When the distributions are started depends on how confident you are in the beneficiary to handle their money wisely. This method protects beneficiaries from spending all of the money too early in life and not having any money available when larger issues arise later.
  2. Specific Designations. With trusts, specific designations of money within the trust can determine how much money will be spent on a particular item. With education costs soaring, some people prefer to have trust funds set aside specifically for those heirs who need to pay for school. Property and medical emergencies are other common designations as well.
  3. Directing. Without set stipulations, trusts meant for particular heirs can end up passing to unintended persons in worst case scenarios that the immediate heir dies. To avoid this situation, a trust can be directed so that any trust funds remaining after an heir’s death passes directly to their children only. An alternative can also be to set aside a particular amount of the estate to your grandchildren.

There are countless combinations of methods to ensure confidence in the survival of your assets. Thornton Law Firm specializes in trust, wills, and all types of estate planning for the entire Triangle area, from Knightdale to Fuquay Varina, to Chapel Hill. Contact us now to get started.