Claiming Life Insurance Benefits

If one of your estate planning goals is to ensure assets remain in your family, an inheritance trust may be an option to consider. Leaving assets in a trust allows your children to keep inherited assets separate from marital assets and protects assets from creditors during financial hardship.

How It Works

The assets in the trust benefit you during your lifetime and then pass to separate trusts for each of your children upon your death or the deaths of you and your spouse. You remain the trustee until your death. Successor trustees can be your spouse, your children, or a trust company to ensure that no one outside the family has access to the trust assets.

You can transfer assets to the trust throughout your lifetime, and you’ll be able to name a beneficiary — often a grandchild — to receive any assets remaining in the trust when your child dies. You can also appoint a trustee, possibly from among your other children, to manage the assets for a minor grandchild at the death of a parent.

Limited Powers

As trustee, your child has limited power to change the trust’s beneficiary. However, the new beneficiary must be another one of his or her children or another one of your children or grandchildren. If your child dies without children, the trust can direct unused assets to be divided among your remaining blood relatives, including the deceased child’s siblings or your other grandchildren.

Keep It in the Family

An inheritance trust can protect valuable assets from accidentally slipping away from your family.

As an example, suppose you own a lake house that’s been in your family for a couple of generations. Assets that pass through an inheritance trust are not considered joint marital assets and, therefore, are protected if your child and a spouse divorce. The lake house stays with your blood relatives, since any assets remaining in the trust are distributed to your grandchildren or your other children when your child dies.

Your financial and estate planning professional can help you determine if an inheritance trust could complement your estate plans.