Creating an estate plan should help solidify your vision of the future. Yet, all of that can be thrown into doubt if you have heirs and beneficiaries who you’re concerned will squander away or otherwise mismanage their inheritance. This, in turn, can threaten to cut the benefits of your estate well short of what you expect. Fortunately, though, there are estate planning vehicles you can utilize to give your estate and its assets the longevity that you want.
Estate planning tools to create asset longevity
The exact layout of your estate plan will depend on your vision of the future and how you intend to support your heirs and beneficiaries. That said, here are some commonly utilized and effective estate planning tools that you might want to consider:
- A spendthrift trust that incrementally releases assets so that the beneficiary can’t quickly squander way the balance contained within the trust.
- A discretionary trust that allows the individual responsible for managing the trust to release assets in amounts that they deem fit given the beneficiary’s circumstances.
- An incentive trust that conditions the release of trust assets on the completion of an identified task.
- Remainder trusts, which leave assets to a named beneficiary with any remaining inheritance to pass to a secondary beneficiary upon the first’s death.
- A generation-skipping trust that provides assets directly to your grandchildren, thereby ensuring those assets reach further into the future.
- A legacy trust, meant to provide generational wealth for a long time to come.
Tailor your estate plan to suit your needs
As you can see, there are several estate planning options that you can use to give your estate plan longevity. Be sure to read up on those that interest you most so that you can make fully informed decisions that protect your vision of the future of your estate and your loved ones.