A trust can provide inheritance protection.

Your child is married.

You should be happy.

Instead, you are upset.

You do not like your new son-in-law or daughter-in-law.

According to a recent nj.com article titled, “My daughter is getting married. How can I protect her inheritance?,” you are not alone.

You might use a trust to shield an inheritance.

You cannot control who your children choose to marry, but you can control who receives your inheritance.

How can you keep your assets free from this unwanted addition to the family?

A trust would be advisable.

Why?

You can arrange for the trust to hold your assets now or receive your assets upon your death.

You can provide directions regarding how the assets are to be used and create stipulations their transfer to beneficiaries.

For example, you can stipulate assets should be used for the education, health, maintenance, and support of your child.

What happens if your child dies?

You can direct assets to be inherited by your grandchildren directly or to be held in further trust for their benefit.

As part of this process, you will need to appoint a trustee to manage and administer the trust according to your wishes.

You can name a company or an individual to serve as the trustee.

Will the assets be protected from the child of your spouse in case of a divorce?

As long as the distributions are not commingled with the assets of the spouse, the assets should be free from equitable distribution arrangements.

Are you still concerned about the financial impact of a divorce?

Encourage your child to get a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.

In doing so, the spouse would waive rights to any assets your child may inherit.

If you find yourself in this unpleasant situation, work with an experienced estate planning attorney to create a solution to meet your needs and address your concerns.

Reference: nj.com (September 27, 2019) “My daughter is getting married. How can I protect her inheritance?”