Special Beneficiary Provisions

There are many situations where you may want to provide for your family after your death with their inheritance held in a trust. These special trusts are part of your beneficiary clause of your own trust or will. The following are some examples of commonly used special beneficiary trusts:

Asset Management Trust For Minors

You can leave a bequest in a trust to be used to pay for the support and education of your beneficiary (example: grandchild). Once the grandchild reaches a designated age such as 25 years old, he/she could receive the balance outright.

Support Trust For A Family Member

You can leave a bequest in a trust to be used to support and pay expenses of a family member such as an adult child. This is often used when a child does not handle funds well and would squander his/her inheritance. Such a trust would have the trustee be the caretaker of the funds and use discretion as to when and how the funds should be spent.

Income For Life Trust

You can leave assets in a trust where the beneficiary would receive all of the income earned on trust assets, but the principal would remain in the trust. Upon the death of the beneficiary, the balance would then go to whomever you have designated. This type of trust is often used in a second marriage situation where you want to provide for your spouse, but on his/her death, the balance would then go back to your children.

Supplemental Needs Trust For Child With Disabilities

If you have a child (or grandchild) with disabilities who is receiving government benefits, you can leave your assets in a trust for your child which would be used to supplement the government benefits but not replace those benefits. Such a trust, if written properly, would not be deemed to be an asset of your child and therefore would not cause your child to lose government benefits. For more details, please see our dedicated web page on Supplemental Needs Trusts

Trusts For Pets

New York State enacted legislation in 1996 which permits you to provide for your pets after your death. Under this law, you can set aside funds to be held in a Trust to maintain the health, welfare and comfort of your pets.

Before the enactment of this law, if you wanted to provide for your pets, you had to make gifts to someone with an unenforceable request that he/she provide for your pets.

Under this Pet Trust law, you decide the amount of funds you want to set aside and designate someone (Trustee) to manage the funds and provide for your pets pursuant to the requirements you set forth in the Trust. The Trustee cannot use the funds for any purpose other than to care for your pets.

The Trust ends on the death of your pets. You designate under the terms of the Trust who inherits the remaining balance of your Pet Trust at the time of termination.

A Pet Trust can be written as part of your Last Will and Testament or as part of the beneficiary provisions of your own Revocable or Irrevocable Living Trust.

The Koldin Law Center is available to meet with you to discuss your options. There is no fee for the initial consultation.