Attaching Strings to What You Leave Your Heirs

In some situations, parents may be concerned about the prospect of what their children would do with their inheritance should they pass away. While there is always the option to disinherit specific heirs, this will likely only be viewed as a last resort. Instead, you do have the option to add strings or conditions to your estate plan.

If you do decide to disinherit a child, you will need to specifically state the child that you are disinheriting in the will so that if you should die, the courts do not assume that you simply forgot to mention the child.

Otherwise, you will need to write the exact conditions you want attached to certain assets or heirs in your will. For example, you might choose to say that a child will only receive their inheritance after they complete schooling at a four-year university. You might also say that they will only receive their inheritance if they successfully complete a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program.  If your children are very young, you will want to have someone hold their inheritance in trust and use it for their benefit until they are old enough to assume responsibility for that inheritance.

In other cases, parents might be hesitant to leave behind money to their children out of fear that they’ll spend it all at once. Therefore, you can arrange to have their inheritance handed down to them in installments rather than in one lump sum to encourage fiscal responsibility.

 

There are plenty of options available to you should you decide to attach strings to your estate plan. For more information on how you can accomplish this goal and whether your scenario calls for doing so, consult a skilled Tampa estate planning lawyer at BaumannKangas Estate Law.