A lot of people who engage in the estate planning process do so to support their loved ones as much as they can. But if you’re like a lot of estate planners, then you’re concerned about how long your estate’s assets will last. You want longevity out of your estate, but you might feel powerless in how your assets will be used once they’re inherited by those you care about. While that’s a legitimate concern, you shouldn’t stress about it too much. Instead, you should educate yourself on what sort of estate planning options you can utilize to give your estate and its assets the longevity that you envision.
We know that the thought of diving into the intricacies of estate planning may not be all that appealing since the process can seem confusing at times. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this post, we’re going to give you some ideas for how to gain control over the longevity of your estate so that you’ll at least have a starting point for building the effective estate plan that you want.
There are a lot of estate planning tools out there. Not all of them are focused on asset longevity. That said, here are some options that you might be able to utilize in your set of circumstances to ensure that your assets survive longer:
- Spendthrift trust: If you’re worried about your assets being quickly squandered away after being inherited, then a spendthrift trust might be a viable option for you. With this trust, assets are incrementally released to the beneficiary over time so that they can’t be spent away in quick order. This ensures that your loved one will have financial support over a longer period of time.
- Discretionary trust: This trust allows the trustee, the person responsible for managing the trust, to decide when assets should be released to a named beneficiary and in what amounts. If you have a trustworthy individual acting in that capacity, then you can rest assured that they’ll keep your wishes in mind when they release assets in a way that ensures that the trust will last a long time.
- Incentive trust: When creating this trust, you can condition the release of assets on the completion of a task. You have wide latitude here, so you can be creative in figuring out what sort of condition you want to be met. It can be a beneficiary graduating from college, getting married, having a child, completing a financial literacy course or even completing substance use treatment.
- Generation-skipping trust: This trust allows you to leave assets to your grandchildren and, as the name implies, skip over your children. There are tax advantages to using this type of trust, but it also ensures that your assets will support your extended family for longer.
- Proper beneficiary designation: You have complete control over who inherits your assets. So, choose them wisely so that you don’t leave your assets in the hands of those who will use them irresponsibly.
Learn about your estate planning options so that you can choose those that are right for you
There are a lot of issues to address when you engage in the estate planning process. While that can be stressful to think about, don’t let it scare you to the point that you procrastinate. Instead, educate yourself as much as possible so that you can make the fully informed decisions that are right for you and that can bring your vision of the future into