Making Provisions To Your Estate Plan

Associate Colin Flannigan regularly advises clients in the practice areas of wills, trusts, estate and incapacity planning, estate administration, residential and commercial real estate, property matters, corporate transactions, and business law.

In this episode of Legal Matters, Colin discusses making provisions in your estate plan if you have minor children or are the guardian of minors. He also discusses how to navigate making provisions in your estate plan with a blended family.

Transcript:

If you have minor children or have custody or guardianship of minors, you should consider your options on what provisions you can make in your estate planning. You do have options. You can make an appointment for guardianship and a prescribed form under the Family Law Act, or you can make a provision in your Will.

One of the benefits of making a provision in your Will is you can coordinate what happens with money that's being held in trust for the benefit of the minors. If it's different people, that is the guardian as opposed to who the trustee for the minor is, you can coordinate on who makes payments on behalf of the minors, as well as being able to address compensation to make sure you're treating everyone fairly.

You also have the ability to appoint alternate guardians in case your first choice isn't able to accept the appointment.

Now things can be complicated if you have shared custody or guardianship. So if you're in a blended family scenario it's very important to seek legal advice on how best to address this to ensure your loved ones are taken care of.