Trends in Living Trusts

The biggest trend is “I want to protect my child’s inheritance.” Can you imagine leaving your hard earned estate to a child when you die and they get into a messy divorce, lawsuit or they just spend it unwisely and lose everything? What a waste. What if you could leave everything for the heir but still protect all the money from their creditors and that heir’s own bad judgment? You can. It is called a spendthrift trust and in Arizona and many states, that child’s creditors and spouses cannot go after it other than in very limited circumstances, child support being one. The heir is also prevented from wasting the funds since it is intended to be available to them for their lifetime. One case we had a trust beneficiary of a $250,000 distribution spend the entire amount in 9 months, the largest expense was the rental of a Cadillac Escalade.