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My wife and I just had our wills and POAs redone. We changed our domicile form PA to NJ a few years ago, and it was recommended we have them updated. I was surprised how different some of the documents were from state to state. For example, NJ has an 11 day period before a will can be probated, starting form the date of death. PA does not have that. The Medical POA and Advanced Directive was very narrative driven; our PA versions used tables of conditions and check marks for selecting treatment or not.
The estate attorney said our PA documents were valid, but the biggest issue was the language that defined the conditions under which our grandsons would inherit, in the unlikely, and sad, event that one of our sons predeceased us. The PA will set up a PA trust . The attorney felt this would add a lot of complication and force the will to be also probated in PA.
One consideration in a generation-skipping inheritance is at what age does the heir get control of the money in trust. I was a bit surprised that there are numerous opinions on this. Our original wills specified the age of 25. Lot of folks thought that was too young. Some recommended 35, others 30. Maybe we are optimist, but I think the world of our grandsons (currently 11, 9, 4, and 20 months), and was quite confident they will be outstanding adults at 25, like their parents. We finally settled on 28. Hopefully this part of the will never is exercised.
I fully understand this decision is very much dependent of the heirs. I have friends who are trustees for adult siblings that struggle with life. But I wonder what do other HD readers think is an appropriate age for an heir to assume control?
Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. I didn’t mention it, but as others have said, our wills allow for broad powers for the trustee to spend the money for the benefit of minor grandchildren if necessary. I hope I can hang around long enough to see our grandchildren grow and mature. I would be thrilled to feel comfortable removing any restrictions on their inheritance.
Don’t rush it Rick. Our oldest grandchild just entered college and the second oldest has narrowed her next years college choice to three schools. They get old faster than we seem to 😎. My long-term goal since retiring was to see a at least one gradnchild graduate college. I’m still hopliing.
Dick, that is a fine goal that I share. Our oldest grandson is entering 6th grade, and talking about high school. I even think I might be able to make a wedding if the oldest gets married in his twenties!
As soon as our youngest graduated from college and started adult employment, we switched our estate to a give it now from a dole it out by age 35 model. Due to cost and long-term fee erosion experiences with trusts, I am generally anti-trust except for minor children or to protect significantly challenged adult inheritors.
I have come to fear lawyers’ costs, management fees, and tax-law changes far more than either probate or my kids spending non-ideally. More here:
https://humbledollar.com/2022/08/where-theres-a-will-2/