This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. While mourning the death of a family matriarch, many families experience the following scenario: In meeting with the family attorney, relatives get the unexpected news that one of them is now in a position to affect the financial futures of the others. And this individual had no idea this was coming.
The matriarch was the trustee of a living trust — a legal arrangement that had been established by the grantor, her husband and the father of the couple’s adult children. The goal was to protect assets and direct their eventual distribution to heirs, the trust’s beneficiaries. Until his death, the patriarch had served as the trustee, the person in charge of fulfilling the trust’s provisions. When he died, his wife became the trustee.A clueless trustee Now that the wife has died, the role has fallen to an adult child. This person is stunned because no one had ever mentioned that he or she would eventually be saddled with this responsibility. The designated successor trustee was clueless because the grantor, the father, never brought it up, much less obtained consent. In this all-too-common scenario, this news comes as a shock when successor trustees find out what’s involved. Living trusts often require trustees to work with financial professionals to manage assets and distribute investment income to beneficiaries, handle taxes and maintain or sell real property, among many other tasks. This type of trust is not just for families with extreme wealth. Families of more modest wealth also can find them usefu …
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The matriarch was the trustee of a living trust — a legal arrangement that had been established by the grantor, her husband and the father of the couple’s adult children. The goal was to protect assets and direct their eventual distribution to heirs, the trust’s beneficiaries. Until his death, the patriarch had served as the trustee, the person in charge of fulfilling the trust’s provisions. When he died, his wife became the trustee.A clueless trustee Now that the wife has died, the role has fallen to an adult child. This person is stunned because no one had ever mentioned that he or she would eventually be saddled with this responsibility. The designated successor trustee was clueless because the grantor, the father, never brought it up, much less obtained consent. In this all-too-common scenario, this news comes as a shock when successor trustees find out what’s involved. Living trusts often require trustees to work with financial professionals to manage assets and distribute investment income to beneficiaries, handle taxes and maintain or sell real property, among many other tasks. This type of trust is not just for families with extreme wealth. Families of more modest wealth also can find them usefu …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]