re: Setting Up a Trust for Children Advice

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Is there a reason, then, that you don't want to name yourself as the trustee?

It seems that probate avoidance or tax issues isn't the driving factor here. So, if you want to segregate a portion or all of this property solely for the kids benefit, just create a trust for that. Name yourself trustee and your wife as secondary trustee.

If you die, then your wife should be on the same page with you, and she can then name a new secondary trustee in the event of her death.

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I trust my wife, but people change, and its hard to look 20 years into the future and have any sort of certainty when it comes to these types of things. From what I have seen in my own personal experience, money makes people go crazy. I have had issues within my own immediate family.

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I trust my wife, but people change, and its hard to look 20 years into the future and have any sort of certainty when it comes to these types of things. From what I have seen in my own personal experience, money makes people go crazy. I have had issues within my own immediate family.

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Please sit with an estate planning expert: a really good one will talk through this with you. What is your goal? To preserve cash for your children? You're right that people change & money makes ppl do crazy things--but you also need to consider that preserving cash for your children might deprive your wife in some future time of need/crisis. Would you really want her to be in need at the expense of preserving cash for your children?

Imagine a scenario where you predecease your wife & you've locked up the separate property, tight, for the children's use when they're 25 or older. She comes down with (G*d forbid) MS or a similarly debilitating condition & needs care....modifications to a house to allow her to live at home with the still-minor kids, etc. Would you really want them to suffer, while preserving the cash for later?

I know you're fixated on the "bad" that people potentially do with money; but assuming the worst of one's spouse seems pre-emptively cruel. Life insurance or other strategies should be considered as you plan for the future.

If you're talking about investment assets and have this hard a time finding someone close to you to manage, you should absolutely use a corporate trustee for your successor. Many of the major brokerages have in house trust management and the fees aren't terrible (they will just come from assets). Set it up to give trustee plenty of discretion to fund child's needs and education, and figure out what event you want to trigger dissolution (age, marriage, etc.). You'll need a lawyer and a financial adviser to help you get it set up, but process is pretty painless.

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I am basically splitting up a few things just to make sure that she is taken care of, but that the kids are as well.

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They are her kids too. If you croak next year, protecting those kids gonna be her #1 priority unless you married a demon wench. Unless you're talking millions here, it sounds like you are overthinking this.