Minors Inheriting Property

According to a popular stereotype, grandparents love to spoil their grandchildren, even if, a generation earlier, they were strict or aloof toward their own children. Regardless of the nature of your interactions with your grandchildren, they probably take center stage in your estate plan. You want to set aside money for your own long-term care but also to help the younger generations of your family financially. Of course, we live in uncertain times. If we have any financial stability or family unity today, we cannot be sure that it will be there tomorrow. If you leave your entire estate to your children, it might not reach your grandchildren by the time they grow up, either because of financial hardship that befalls the family or because your children withhold it from your grandchildren. If you want to ensure that the money reaches your grandchildren, you can name them as beneficiaries of your will or of a trust. For advice on conveying property to your grandchildren through your estate plan, contact a Bronx estate planning lawyer.

Guardianship of a Minor’s Property Is Not the Same Thing as Legal Custody of a Child

It is wise to leave separate shares of your property to your children and to your grandchildren if you are worried that your children will spend their inherited money quickly or disinherit their own children. If your grandchildren are minors when your estate settles, they still become the legal owners of their inherited property, but, as minors, they cannot access it directly. Instead, their parents should petition the court to appoint a guardian of the property for each minor beneficiary.

The guardian of the property opens an account and deposits the minor’s inherited wealth in it. Until the beneficiary reaches adulthood, the guardian must submit financial disclosures to the court every year about the minor’s property. The guardian may make transactions with the minor’s account, but any expenses must be for the minor’s benefit. The guardian of a minor’s property can be the minor’s legal parent, meaning the child’s genetic or adoptive mother or father, or he or she can be any other adult, related or unrelated to the child by blood, marriage, or adoption.

It Is Simpler to Designate a Minor as a Beneficiary of a Trust Than as a Beneficiary of a Will

Some grandparents choose to make their grandchildren beneficiaries of a trust instead of beneficiaries of a will. When your grandchildren inherit through your will, you do not get to choose how they spend the money; it is the judge’s decision whether the guardian’s transactions were appropriate. With a trust, you can write a trust instrument with detailed instructions for the trustee about how to spend the money. The trust can even go into effect while you are still alive, and if it is a revocable trust, you can modify its terms as many times as you choose.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney

An estate planning lawyer can help you establish a trust for your grandchildren or list them as beneficiaries of your will.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

nycourts.gov/help/guardianship/guardianship-child#:~:text=Any%20person%2018%20years%20old,should%20go%20to%20Surrogate’s%20Court.