It’s probably taken you decades to build your wealth. As a result, it’s natural to worry about how your loved one’s will use your estate’s assets once they’re inherited. After all, you don’t want all your hard work to be squandered away in a fraction of the time it took you to build your estate. But is there anything you can do to ensure that you estate has longevity?
Absolutely! That’s one of the benefits of creating a comprehensive estate plan. Let’s take a closer look.
Tips for creating estate longevity
You have a multitude of estate planning tools at your fingertips. Here are some that might allow your estate’s assets to last longer and provide more meaningful support to those you care about:
- A spendthrift trust that incrementally releases assets so that they’re not all quickly spent away, and they can remain protected, at least to a certain extent, from the beneficiary’s creditors.
- A discretionary trust that allows the trustee to release assets as they see fit and in accordance with the beneficiary’s need.
- An incentive trust that withholds asset distribution until a pre-identified condition is met.
- A generation-skipping trust that gives assets directly to your grandchildren and provides you with a tax incentive.
- A remainder trust that dictates who will receive trust assets once an initial beneficiary passes away.
- A dynasty trust that seeks to provide long-term support for your family members far into the future.
Learn more about your estate planning options
The estate planning process is completely customizable to suit your needs and wishes, which gives you several opportunities to develop a plan that achieves your goals. To do that, you need to understand your options. That’s why now is a good time to start reading up on the estate planning vehicles you can use and how you can put them together to form the cohesive plan you want.