The 50 Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes...and How to Avoid Them by Jean Blacklock & Kruger Sarah

Author:Jean Blacklock & Kruger, Sarah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-01-28T05:00:00+00:00

So, try not to let the decision between your sister, Ann, and your best friends, Sue and Chris, hold up the entire freight train of your will planning. There really are very important reasons to get a will done over and above the guardianship appointment. It just isn’t smart to hold off forever on finalizing those draft wills on your night table simply over who should be named as the children’s guardian.

choosing an inappropriate guardian or trustee

Having droned on about getting on with a decision about your children’s guardian, we’d be remiss to not point out that sometimes the guardianship and trusteeship appointments for bereaved children aren’t as wise as they should have been.

The key point with the guardianship appointment is to keep it fresh; the ideal guardians when your children are 3 and 5 may not be the best ones when they are 13 and 15. Facing an application to formally appoint guardians of teens, the court will most likely ask the children for their opinion, so it is best to have a selection in your will that makes sense not only to you but to your children as they mature and develop. Eventually of course your children will reach the age of majority and an updated will won’t even mention guardians. Until then, keep the clause current.

Regarding the appointment of a trustee for your children’s inheritance, here the tip is to ensure that your named trustee is always a person of unquestioned integrity and financial acumen. If the trustee of your children’s trusts has a gambling addiction or for some other reason squanders or inappropriately manages the money, it will be very difficult later for the children to get it back: there isn’t a magical fund in the government or elsewhere that will compensate your children for their lost inheritance. If the trustee has spent not only your children’s assets but also has burned through all of his or her net worth, there won’t be a happy ending.

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