One way to leave an inheritance to someone is to list it in your will. As soon as you pass away, your estate goes through probate. The estate executor should inventory the assets and then give those financial assets directly to the person that you named.
But this can be somewhat tricky if that person is still young. For instance, maybe you have a beneficiary who is only 18 years old. You want to include them in your will and leave them an inheritance, but it’s going to be a substantial amount of money. You’re worried that giving that much money to an 18-year-old will just cause them to waste it or lack motivation for things like getting an education or starting a career. Can you delay when they receive their inheritance?
You could put it in a trust
One of the best ways to do this is to put the inheritance into a trust. Once you’ve done this, you still name the same beneficiary. But you also choose a trustee and you give them certain stipulations that they have to follow.
In this specific example, you could choose to have the trustee pay the beneficiary 10% of the total inheritance when you pass away so that they still feel like they get something. They may not get another 40% until they turn 25, and they don’t get the remaining balance – the other half of the inheritance – until they turn 35. By doing that, you delay when they receive the money and increase the odds that they will use that inheritance wisely.
Trusts can be used for many things, and age distributions are just one example. Take the time to carefully look into all of your legal options when making an estate plan.