The most important thing to do now is to know how to avoid paying a substantial estate tax (state and/or Fed), either now or at some point in the future. If you do that incorrectly or w/o proper guidance, then there may be little or nothing left to support the kids.

Depending on your net worth, the best thing to do is get a good estate planning attorney and set up an appropriate trust.

Believe it or not, the IRS website is a good place to start doing some research.

jeff been there done this. w/my assets both my kids split down middle since there 18 and 21. but since the older one has had his problems and i have an extensive firearms collection i added into mine before either kid gets anything they will drug test once a week for ONE YEAR, at their cost before they get anything. this add on is called a codicil(sp). my best friend is executor and i have another back up. if im in a veggie state.........pull the ******* plug!

g/friend may become wife and then there really screwed! hahahahaha


since going fast in p-cars, scuba diving w/sharks, riding quads/dirtbikes/off road racet trucks and buggies IS DANGEROUS..........i felt i should have a will in place!


reality is...............im spending every damn penny and they can earn their own toys just like me!


the gift that just keeps giving and giving long after im gone!

piss me off???? ...................WATCH THIS BOYS!

A billionaire in Conneticut had a trust for his 6 kids. All educational expenses are paid for by the trust. Starting at age 26, the kids can submit their W2 forms to the trust administrator and the trust will reward them with 3X their annual earnings.

Seems like a great plan. One of his kids was a burnout till age 30 when he figured out that $0.00 X 3 = $0.00. One of his daughters is a school teacher and when interviewed expressed gratitude for her fathers wisdom. She always wanted to teach, and with the trust money she has a much more comfortable life than she could otherwise expect.

Listen to Lee and Dueller. They are exactly correct. You need a will now with all of that set out in detail. The cost is so nominal ($500 to $2,000, as Dueller said) that there is no financial excuse for not getting it done.

If you do not leave a will that schedules how your children will inherit your estate, they would take their whole inheritance on the day they turn 18. Think about that for a minute. Your kids as 18 year olds with an equal share of all the assets you leave behind. Need I say more?

If my wife and I die early, our kids get taken care of with a generous stipend to their guardian. They get some money when they turn 18 and get college paid for, with pocket money at the discretion of the trustee. They get more money upon graduation, and if they want to go to grad school it's paid for with an allowance. They get more if they graduate from grad school. Otherwise they get increasing distributions as they get older. I think they get the final payment when they turn 30 or 35 or something like that.

One final bit of advice: don't hide your will. Keep it somewhere it can be located quickly and easily. There's an old story about a rancher who died and didn't appear to have a will. He left a sizable estate. Years later someone was digging behind his milkhouse and found a key in an old mason jar. Eventually the key was traced to a safe deposit box at a local bank. In the safe deposit box, of course, was the will. The first words in the will were "My will is located in a safety deposit box at _____ bank. The key is hidden in a mason jar buried under the window behind the milk house." He might have left that bit of information with one of his heirs.

my kids would be dead if they got all my crap at 18!

remember in big scheme of things you have been a successful parent if they reach 21 and they are still ALIVE!

mine was 250 bucks short sweet no b.s. to the point. codiscil(sp) for drug testing and it only really applies to older one, but i decided i shouldnt short change younger one from testing, was 75 bucks.


what a prick huh???

full head and crotch of gray hair becuz of those bastids!

Forgive me if this is a bit of a hijack but...can anyone tell me if you can inherit debt? And more generally, can the debts of a parent somehow impact the child's finances?

Oddly enough, I suspect I am the only one in my family to have any financial sense. And I don't want to end up paying for the financial mistakes of others.

Generally the debt dies with the debtor. Unsecured debt, like credit cards, expire with the debtor. Secured debt, like mortgages, get satisfied through the sale of the secured property. The heirs either get the proceeds minus the secured interest (mortgage) or they pay off or assume the mortgage and keep the property.

Thanks. Unfortunately, that last phrase is what I am most afraid of. What happens if someone is upside down on their mortgage and the sale of the property does not satisfy the debt? I just don't want to wake up some morning to find that everything I've worked so hard for has been flushed down the toilet by an irresponsible/ill-informed idiot (or two). Is there ANY way I can get burned?

You don't have to accept an inheritance that has a debt or lien on it.

No. You won't inherit the debt of a relative. If the relative owns property that is mortgaged for more than it's worth the property gets sold and the bank takes the loss. The debt doesn't get passed down to the heirs.