If you are planning your estate and want to help your family for years to come, think beyond your immediate heirs to the next generation. There are a few techniques you can use to plan for giving to many members of your family.

Trusts and Multi-Generation Estate Planning

Setting up one or more trusts is a great way to make a multi-generation estate plan. When you create a trust, you place money or property in the hands of a trustee, who manages it for the benefit of beneficiaries you choose. The trustee must invest and manage the money or property wisely, so it may gain significant value over time.

You can set conditions on who receives distributions from the trust, how much they receive, and when they receive them. For example, you could decide that your children will receive all interest and dividends earned by the trust until they pass away. At that point, your grandchildren receive distributions of the trust property regularly until the trust is depleted.

This is just one of many, many ways that you can structure a trust to benefit multiple generations. Trusts are very flexible devices to help your family if you have accumulated money, real estate, stocks, or other valuable items.

Wills and Multi-Generation Estate Planning

You can make gifts to multiple generations of your family in your will, as well as in a trust. When your family has several generations of living members, you may experience marriages, births or deaths in the family after you create your will. This may lead to somewhat unequal gifts that you did not expect. Depending on how your will is structured, some grandchildren could receive their parents' shares of your gifts while others receive nothing. More distant relatives could be cut out of the will altogether. As a result, you may want to consider how to spread your estate to multiple generations in your will.

There are several other estate planning devices that can help you give to your whole family. Start making an estate plan today with the help of a Bahamian lawyer.

To learn more about estate planning, visit Gonsalves-Sabola Chambers online or call the office at +1 242 326 6400.