Trust and children

[pacergal]

1) What does your wife think? How did you both arrive at your decision on the trust.

2) Did you each bring any other financials (IRAs etc into the marriage? Assuming you accumulated the majority of your funds from your 30's to retirement together (a SAHM is equivalent in my book), raising all of the kids together, I would advocate for equal.

OR 50% to your child, 50% to your wife if you die first, as long as she will have enough to live our her life without financial struggle. Her kids may inherit from their Father.

3) What is your concern that you are bringing this up now, why are you second guessing your decision? Is it the trust itself or the "fairness" of the disbursement of the estate?

 

[rodi]

My parents had an A/B trust. After my mom died, my dad met my step mom (registered domestic partner, rather than wife). They (stepmom and dad) redid their trusts to explicitly pass on to their own children but to provide provisions for each other. My dad passed and my step mom got a fixed (fairly large) chunk to make sure she had the funds to maintain the house they shared (that was in her name). My brother and dad had a huge falling out about the time the trusts were being redone - and bad enough things were said that my dad decided to cut my brother out. HOWEVER, because it had been an AB trust - dad could not cut my brother out of mom's side. Dad pre-deceased my brother by a few months and my sister (the executor/trustee) made sure my brother got his chunk from mom's side. I'm sure mom would have wanted him to get something - so it all ended up as designed. This allowed my brother to pay off debt and leave a small amount to his church.

We also chose an a/b trust with testamentary trusts to be created for our kids. Retirement accounts have TOD beneficiaries.

 

[old medic]

50/50 split on your passing, wife and your son...
Should the wife pass before, you can pass along some to her kids if you would like.