If your children are under age eighteen, you should have trusts for them in your Wills, in the event you and your spouse should die before all your children reach age 18. If minors receive assets prior to reaching age eighteen, a guardian of the property must be appointed to take care of those assets for your child. A guardian of the property must be bonded (which requires annual premium payments), and the guardian must file a formal accounting with the court annually, along with a petition for approval. The guardian will need a lawyer, and perhaps an accountant, to assist with satisfying these requirements. The costs of all this are paid from your child’s funds.

Originally Published in Lloyd Harbor Life - November 2019.