Making sure you have a well-planned state is absolutely crucial to preserving your wealth in the long-run. In order to ensure your financial legacy survives to take care of your family and loved ones, you’ll need to make sure everything is in order now.

Unique Estate Planning Factors Of Today

With each generation comes different needs. This means what worked for you in the past might not work for your family, or other future generations. As lifetimes increase and the time when your children decide to marry are also on the rise you might consider pushing back the distribution dates for your trust.

Gender roles are also continuing to fluctuate, as women have more economic power in the marketplace than ever before. Wealth management for women and men is different, especially as roles continue to shift into the future.

Lastly, it’s important to think about family needs. If you have a large family, chances are a lot of your beneficiaries are going to be alive at any given time. This means you’ll need to spend extra time figuring out disbursement dates and correct monetary amounts.

Key Trust Factors To Consider

Establishing a trust is one of the most effective ways for wealth protection and asset control in the long-term. Below we cover four elements you’ll want to be sure to include in your trust.

1. Wealth Transfer To Spouses

In some cases if you have a long-term marriage where financial control has been shared between spouses, then the assets will usually be left outright to the surviving spouse. However, in cases of second or third spouses you’ll have more control over the distribution of your assets.

2. Your Offspring and Other Descendants

Changing family structures make it more important than ever to breakdown to whom your distributions are going. In the past, children who were adopted and biological were considered traditional provisions, while step children were not.

However, as stepchildren are becoming commonplace trusts are needing to become more clear with the terms they use, to ensure every child in their family is represented. Make sure your terminology is clear and every family member is accounted for.

3. Incentive Trusts

Incentive trusts allow you to specify certain conditions that need to be satisfied before the funds in the trust are distributed. Clarity is important here as well, as vague terms can make it near impossible to access the trust.

The most effective methods for incentive trusts involve appointing suitable trustees and letting them decide based upon discretion if the conditions have been met.

4. Timeline For Asset Distribution

Many people with large trusts believe that giving a large sum of money to a young person is never quite the right decision. However, one way around this is to divide the inheritance into certain amounts which are then distributed based upon certain ages or timelines.

Setting up your trust is one of the most important financial decisions you can make. If you have a lot of moving financial parts it’s crucial you work with an estate planning professional.