Protecting Your Estate From Opportunistic In-Laws 

Protecting Your Estate From Opportunistic In-Laws 

By Attorney Paul Hanks Ironclad Living Trusts

Clients have come to my law firm for years with concerns about protecting their estate from their in-laws. Almost always my client’s concern points to an opportunistic son-in-law or daughter-in-law. The reasons for protecting your estate from in-laws are many. In-laws fall outside your family lineage and should not earn a share of your estate merely by reason of their marriage to one of your children. In-laws could be reckless spenders. In-laws may lack your frugality which helped you earn your wealth. You worked hard for your money so protect it in a trust. Part of that protection can include preventing in-laws from grabbing a share of your estate. 

The concern of an opportunistic in-law jeopardizing one’s estate is a common one. For these situations a living trust should be customized to include what is known as protective inheritance trust provisions. Protective provisions in a living trust to safeguard one’s inheritance is a very powerful estate planning tool. A living trust can provide for the ongoing management of a beneficiaries inheritance. The successor trustee can be guided by your own instructions included in the trust for the protection of a beneficiaries interest. 

The trust can direct the successor trustee on how trust monies will be managed and spent on behalf of a beneficiary. The trust becomes a resource to the beneficiary. The trust remains under the control of the successor trustee for the benefit of the beneficiary. Trust monies could be applied towards the beneficiaries needs of daily living, housing assistance, education, and healthcare. The trust can go beyond that and provide for the sound and prudent investment of a beneficiaries share. The trust can even allow for the trustee to earmark funds for the downpayment on a home. The key is for the successor trustee to be instructed on the management of the beneficiaries inheritance rather than the entire inheritance being released to the beneficiary in a single lump sum. 

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