The great wealth transfer

[Doctor Phibes]

We set up a revokable trust so that in the event of a series of unfortunate events my kids wouldn't suddenly have to deal with it until they're a bit older.

[Mik]

The problem with that is finding trustees.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in The great wealth transfer:

The problem with that is finding trustees.

Yes, it does rather dump a lot of responsibility on an innocent family member. Hopefully by the time I pop my clogs the kids will be old enough so that it isn't an issue.

[blondie]

I brought my kid on board mentally with it starting when he was 14, right around the time I was executor of mom’s estate & saw the tax hit with that. His knowledge with it is maturing. He started going to most all my appointments with bankers, investment peeps, accountants, lawyers. He sees the same people now for his stuff. I made sure of that. There’s open disclosure of everyone’s money. Unlike us kids who earned, paid for everything ourselves, we started unloading early on. I’m glad we’re doing this.

[blondie]

I agree with the trustee thing. I rack my brain daily thinking of creative ways to avoid certain taxes, fees, etc. after the last of us passes.

[Copper]

Yup, the Trust owns the house.

[blondie]

I’m toying with the idea of my kid getting central A/C which he’ll pay cash for & expense to his home office.

[Mik]

@blondie said in The great wealth transfer:

I brought my kid on board mentally with it starting when he was 14, right around the time I was executor of mom’s estate & saw the tax hit with that. His knowledge with it is maturing. He started going to most all my appointments with bankers, investment peeps, accountants, lawyers. He sees the same people now for his stuff. I made sure of that. There’s open disclosure of everyone’s money. Unlike us kids who earned, paid for everything ourselves, we started unloading early on. I’m glad we’re doing this.

Bravo. I think we isolate our kids from these things and then are surprised when they don't grasp them as young adults. We started taking our daughter on college tours as a sophomore. We felt it made college much more real to her, and talking to admissions folks and deans really brought home the effect of her grades on what she would be offered. Her diligence went way up.

We also brought her into the deliberations on what each of her prospective schools would cost and how we would pay for it. In the end she made a wise choice for all concerned.

I talked in depth with her when I was executor for my father's estate too.

[blondie]

Good for you Mik. It sounds like she’s listening and understanding. Bring her onboard with your own executor stuff early.

I’m trying to teach my kid how to network, research out credible professionals. There’s so much crap out there concerning investments, retirement, savings, credit, loans, all this. This too is all over social media.

It’s kind of funny now how I thought I was a liberal minded girl until I had to pay mortgage and taxes. I’m seeing the same transition with our kid.

Part of the agreement I cut with our money people was having them “scare the shit” (so to speak) out of our kid with real life stories of generational wealth gone bad. Our kid wouldn’t sit still to listen to me talk of it, but will with others.

[LuFins Dad]

We have to update our wills again as the guardians we had for Finley are moving to Texas. The guardianship was always meant to last until Lucas finished his Masters and had been established in his career for 1 year.

Can you set up a trust to switch trustees? The idea being for Lucas to take over his own Trust at a certain age and to take over Finley’s Trust at another?

[Axtremus]

@Mik said in The great wealth transfer:

I think we isolate our kids from these things and then are surprised when they don't grasp them as young adults.

Unless the topic is sex, then many parents seem to want to shield their kids from anything sex-related until they are 40, maybe forever.