I am very blessed to have two beautiful nephews whom I love. I want to make sure to get this very important information out there so all of your nieces are nephews will be taken care of in their futures as well.

Most parents have thought, as I’m sure your siblings have: “If something happens to my spouse and me, I want to make sure my children have all of the finances they need while growing up." However, the guardians they may have chosen may not be wealthy or may not be the best money-handlers. Which raises the question…how should people setup the finances when naming who should take care of their children?  

Very important question!

This could impact you, the aunt, if you are named as the guardian. You want to be sure that the finances are set up correctly, or you could have a mess on your hands. If not handled properly, the money could end up going to someone other than the kids, such as the guardians directly. For example, if your sibling leaves money to the guardian directly and they go through a divorce or get sued, then no matter how good the intentions, that money would be lost and not available for your nieces and nephews.  

The best way to handle this is by setting things up now, so that if something happened to your siblings, their assets would be in a trust, and not go through a long, expensive court process called probate. And the trustee that has been chosen will have the instructions that the parents have left behind for what they would want to happen. The trustee will manage the assets for the benefit of your nieces and nephews, but the trustee doesn’t own the assets directly. This is much safer and an easy solution that benefits everyone.

Pass this word along to all of your siblings.  Let’s make sure our nieces and nephews will have what they needed if the unthinkable should happen.

Photo: YakobchukOlena
Re-Published: June 1, 2016