Deciding How to Allocate Assets Among Your Children

If you own anything at all, you may have had thoughts about who should inherit those assets when you die. It is important to recognize that you can divide your estate however you wish even if your children may object. Let’s look at some ways to structure an estate plan that accurately reflects your final wishes and how to communicate those wishes ahead of time.

Divide Your Estate Through the Use of a Trust

Assets in a trust can be distributed in any manner that you would like. Therefore, you can choose to divide your estate equally among your children or choose to leave everything to just one child. In the trust document itself, you can write a paragraph or two explaining why one child got a majority stake in the family business while another got an antique painting or money in a bank account.

Beneficiary Designations Can Be Helpful

A beneficiary designation allows an asset to be passed on to a beneficiary as soon as the current owner passes on. It is important to note that this designation is considered more important that any language contained in a will. Therefore, it is important to update them as life events unfold. In most cases, only the beneficiary knows about the transfer, so it is unlikely that anyone will challenge it.

Have a Conversation With Your Kids Ahead of Time

While you are under no obligation to tell your children why you allocated your assets like you did, it is a good idea to do so. This may help to prevent fights between children or prevent your children from resenting you after you pass. An estate planning attorney in Las Vegas may be able to participate in this conversation or have private conversations with adult children on your behalf.

Choosing Guardians in an Estate Plan

Estate planning involved decisions that are about more than just what will you do with your money and property. If you have minor children, your estate plan will also need to include provisions about what will be done with your children if you are not here and how they will be raised.

Have the Conversation First

Before listing someone as the guardian for your children in your estate plan, make sure that you speak with them first to make sure that they are willing to serve in that role. The worst possible thing is for a guardian to be needed, but the person named does not want to fulfill the responsibilities. Not only should you verify that they want to be the guardian, but you should also discuss specific plans for raising the children. Things should never be a surprise to those who will likely already be making contingency plans quickly.

Put It in Writing

The estate plan should spell out any conditions or wishes that you have for how you want your children to be raised. For example, you may want them raised according to a certain religious faith. However, if it is not in your estate plan, the conditions will not endure if you are no longer here. Your estate plan is the way that you make your desires known when you are not here to put them into practice.

Choose the Best Guardian

Many people will consider the age of the prospective guardian and may hesitate to choose them if they are older. This includes the child’s grandparents. However, families should plan for today as opposed to the possibility of what may happen if the prospective guardian can provide for the most continuity for the children. In other words, families should not overthink the decision of who to name at the guardian. An estate planning lawyer in Las Vegas can advise you how to do this effectively.

Avoid the Trap of a Fraudulent Conveyance

Courts may sometimes disallow the transfer of assets into a trust if it is done to avoid a certain debt of piece of litigation. It is vital to move the assets into a trust when there is no specific threat faced so that the transfer can survive litigation if it is challenged.

Make Sure the Timing Is Right

Once you have already been sued, or a creditor has begun to seek payment of a certain debt, it will be too late to affect a transfer of the asset. There must be a judgment or a debt that you are trying to avoid in order for a court to rule that something is a fraudulent conveyance. Even if an asset is being moved into a trust as opposed to being given to someone else, there can be such a thing as too late. It is better to act well in advance of when you think that you may need the protection of the trust.

There Does not Need to Be Actual Fraud

Courts can find that transferring assets into the trust constitutes constructive fraud. When moving assets into a trust, it is best to be as upfront as possible so a later court can understand your reasoning for moving assets to a trust. Document and explain the explanation for your actions so you can keep your intentions above board. The alternative is that a court can reach your assets and take them from the trust.

Work With an Attorney

A trust administration lawyer in Las Vegas can help you structure and time the transfer of assets into a trust in order to ensure that it remains valid and your assets stay yours. If the transfer is not done correctly, it is as if the transfer never happened at all. An attorney can work with you to select different trust structures and find the right jurisdiction in which to establish your trust. Establishing a trust is not something that should be done yourself.

Why Trusts Are More Effective Tools for Disinheriting Someone

There are many reasons why someone would no longer want to transfer money or assets to a family upon his or her passing. However, the person who is cut out of a will may be able to challenge its validity. While a trust could also be challenged, it is more difficult to do so successfully.

Why Are Trusts Harder to Challenge?

Trusts can be harder to challenge because they are not made available to the public. Typically, only beneficiaries get copies of the trust, and in many cases, they are the only ones who are allowed to challenge its terms. Therefore, it is possible that an individual won’t even know that he or she has been denied an inheritance or have any recourse in the event that it happens.

Trusts Tend to Be Finalized Years in Advance

Generally speaking, people will update their wills right up to the final years of their lives. Therefore, it may be easier to claim that changes were made under duress or while a person was not of sound mind. However, since a trust can account for a variety of scenarios in a single document, it is less likely that it will be changed. Since a trust is typically created several years before a person passes, it can be harder to say that its creator was not of sound mind when this occurred.

Your Trustee Can Help With Legal Challenges

In the event that a trust is challenged in court, a trust administration lawyer in Las Vegas can work with your trustee to defend the document. If you want, your attorney can act as a trustee. This can be ideal because your attorney can act as an objective party who will remain faithful to your wishes.

What Occurs When Someone Dies Without a Will?

In the event that you die without having created a will, the state of Nevada will determine what happens to your possessions and assets. To avoid this issue, it’s highly recommended that you create a will, which is very easy to do. To understand just how important it is to make a will, you should know more about what happens when someone dies without having done so.

What Is a Will?

Wills are a way for people to determine how their estates are handled once they die. When you’re thinking about creating a will, it’s important to understand that this document can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. While there are some legal limitations to wills that could require some of your estate to be placed through the probate process once you die, you’ll have much more control over what happens to these assets than if you decided not to create a will.

What Happens When You Die Without a Will?

Dying without a will is referred to as intestate, which essentially means that state laws determine what happens to your assets and property. If you live in Nevada but have a property in California, the California state laws would determine what happens to that specific property. The laws typically differ depending on if you were married or single. These laws could also change if you have children. When single, your parents would receive the entire estate. It could also be divided among siblings if your parents are no longer alive. If you were married, it’s likely that all of your assets would go to your spouse. If there are surviving children but no spouse, the estate would likely be divided evenly among the children.

Why You Should Contact an Estate Planning Lawyer

An estate planning lawyer will be able to help you create a well-written will that’s legally ironclad. They can also point out any mistakes that could create issues down the road. If you’re thinking about creating a will or a more complex estate plan, you’ll want to speak with an estate planning lawyer in Las Vegas to ensure that everything’s in order.