Life is unpredictable. Being a plaintiff in a personal injury case verifies this fact. Being injured by someone else’s negligence proves that it pays to prepare for the unexpected. If the unexpected leave your family without you, make sure that they have the maximum protection and that your wishes are respected.
Simple Will.
A Simple Will might be perfect for you if you have no children, or your children are now adults and you have no fear about them ever divorcing or being sued. A Simple Will is a Will without protective trusts or asset protection tools. This type of Will appoints your executor and then divides your assets outright to your named heirs.
Wills With Protective Trusts.
A Simple Will is not a good tool if you have minor children, wish to provide heirs protection from divorce or lawsuits, if you have a Special Needs Child or if you wish to make sure your assets stay within your family. To meet these goals, your Wills and Trusts Attorney can draft you a Will with Protective Trusts crafted to address your specific concerns.
- Trusts for Minor Children: A Will can form trusts at your death to hold your minor child’s’ inheritances. The trust can give the Trustee the right to use the inheritance to provide for your children while protecting the assets. By forming the trust in your Will, you get to pick the Trustee rather than the court picking, someone, to hold the minor child’s inheritance. Further, you can pick the age when your child takes control rather than the child automatically getting the money at age 18.
- Trusts Providing Protection for Your Adult Children: Your will can also form a trust with language that allows the use of trust assets for your child as an adult, but protects the assets from divorce, lawsuits and future inheritance taxes.
- Special Needs Trusts: If your child or grandchild is eligible for needs-based government benefits, an inheritance by simple will can be disastrous. The inheritance may disqualify the child from government benefits just when you, the responsible person who protects them, has died. Instead, an experienced Special Needs Trust Attorney can draft a Special Needs Trust in your Will that does not disqualify the child for needs-based benefits but does allow the trustee to provide your child with extra care.
- Trusts Keeping Money in the Family: Your experienced Estate Planning Lawyer can craft a trust that requires that your estate is only used to provide benefits for your descendants. A simple will gives money directly to your child who may give the money at death to his or her spouse. That money may well end up with the next husband or wife, not your grandchildren. A trust can help prevent this result.
Have a Will Crafted to Address Your Specific Needs.
Trusts can be crafted to address many different problems. A free consult with an experienced Wills and Trusts Attorney can help determine what trust terms address your specific situation. Further, a consultation can help outline the plan which provides the maximum protection to your loved ones. It takes many years to learn the ins-and-outs of drafting trusts.
A special thanks to our authors at Klenk Law for their insight into Personal Injury and Family Law.
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