Parents of adult children with substance abuse issues face an especially difficult challenge. They no longer have authority to make decisions for the child, and yet, they are forced to watch the child make mistake after mistake.
When you add estate planning to the mix, parents find themselves with another conundrum. Say a parent wants to leave her child an inheritance. There isn’t any guarantee the child won’t use the inheritance to feed their addiction. –So what can the parent do?
This is one of those areas where a trust agreement proves its worth as a legal document.
A trust “spells out the rules” in regards to assets held in the trust. This means the parent can set the rules in regards to controlling what distributions an heir receives, and limit the heir’s access to trust money.
What’s more, the parent can set rules as to how distributions should be altered if substance abuse is suspected. If the parent wants the child rewarded with additional distributions for reaching a specific sobriety milestone, the trust can provide for that as well.
The trust can even be drafted to include provisions which allow the trustee to pay for specific services, such as counseling or rehabilitation programs.
Of course, a trust isn’t a cure for substance abuse. It does however, offer parents peace of mind, knowing whatever inheritance they leave will be used to help, not hurt their child.
For more information about wills, trusts or other estate planning documents, please contact a qualified estate planning attorney.
Sep 16
