Posts Tagged ‘Children’

Who is Watching The Child Care that is Watching Your Children

Written by Christopher J. Berry, Esq. on July 23, 2008 – 1:04 pm -

In a frightening report, according to a Michigan auditor general’s office audit as reported by the Detroit News, state oversight of child care providers was so poor that 1,900 people who were not qualified to provide the care, including sex offenders and child abusers, were not identified, nor prevented from doing so.

This is a frighting for any young families looking for child care. DHS has provided a good guide for what to look for in your child care provider. Their guide can be read here. Included in the guide are questions to ask, what to look for, how to check references, and how to stay involved.

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Posted in News, Personal Reflections, Planning For Young Families | No Comments »

Incentives for The Heirs

Written by Christopher J. Berry, Esq. on July 23, 2008 – 1:28 am -

In a recent survey, only 30% of people who have estate planning documents have outlined specific requirements that their heirs must meet to gain access to their inheritance. This is at odds with the finding that 62% of people felt strongly that each generation should take responsibility for creating it’s own wealth.

What this tells me is that people are not taking advantage of the possibilities with incentive based trusts for their children and heirs. An Incentive based trust is a nifty tool for estate planning attorneys to use that create a set of stipulations that would reward heirs for making specific life choices (and withhold inheritances for poor choices).

Some creative drafting incentives for a trust for children and heirs include:

  • Encourage heirs to seek a higher education by distributing income or principle from the trust to pay tuition and supplies. Additionally, the trust could provide bonuses if a certain grade point is received.
  • The trust assets could be used to match the income of an heir dollar for dollar to reward an heir for having gainful employment.
  • Supplement the income for a child who works for a nonprofit or volunteers to a charitable organization
  • Reward an heir for trying to start their own business.

There are many estate planning options when creating incentives in trusts for the benefit for heirs. As an estate planning lawyer working with a client, we are only limited by our creativity in drafting.

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Posted in Estate Planning, Living Trusts, Planning For Young Families | No Comments »