Dear Quentin, Can you help me understand the risks involved in being a trustee? My elderly father wrote a will, with the help of a lawyer, which divides up his substantial assets equally among his children. However, one sibling is a problem child, a spendthrift, and can’t be trusted.
She is a grifter, unmarried, unemployed, broke, drifting, on Social Security Disability, has unpaid IRS debts, and has many issues. The “problem child” is currently living with our father in a very nice home in an upscale neighborhood, supported by him and enjoying the finer things in life. Her lifestyle will decline dramatically when my father’s home is eventually sold. The will says her inheritance will go into a trust, with me as a trustee, to ensure she has something to live on in retirement, and does not blow it all at once. The size of the trust might be $500,000 or so.
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