Your estate plan can be intentionally structured to delay an inheritance. If you believe that it would be best for a certain beneficiary to receive their inheritance long after you pass away, you can plan in advance to ensure that this happens. Strategic planning focuses on avoiding inheritance delays.
This approach generally will not happen if you use a standard will. You can select beneficiaries and give them certain assets in a will, but that distribution happens during probate. This process occurs in the weeks or months after you pass away. If you would like to delay a distribution further, you likely need to take additional steps.
Setting up a trust
For example, perhaps you are naming beneficiaries and you get to one of your grandchildren. They are still a minor, perhaps a high school student. You are worried that if you pass away in the next few years, they could still be underage. Even if they are a legal adult, they may just be 18 or 19 years old.
To delay their inheritance, one option is to set up a trust. You’ll still name them as a beneficiary, as you would in your will. But you also choose a trustee to be in charge of the distribution of the funds. In this scenario, the beneficiary wouldn’t be able to access the money unilaterally.
While creating a trust, you’ll give that trustee explicit instructions about when to allow the beneficiary to use the money. You could set it up so that they get 50% of their inheritance at 25 and the other 50% at 30 years old, for example. The exact terms will be up to you.
This is just one way to use a trust in your estate plan. Take the time to carefully look into all of your legal options. That way, you can feel confident about whatever approach you ultimately choose.