Trustfund issues

[Joe Washington]

I've heard about trustfunds from time to time in the past and I've been recently wondering a bit how they worked. One of the questions that popped in my head when thinking about trustfunds is if a family has a trustfund and the parents decide to forbid one of their children access to the trustfund for some reason, can the child fight to regain access through legal means and win? I was just curious if it's possible.

 

[Lindley]

It really depends on the specific terms of the trust.

It's pretty standard for a trust that's in a child's name to have certain parental limits applied to it, at least until age 25.

 

[Holdfast]

I was just curious if it's possible.

Depends on the nature/wording of the trust, the conditions under which it was made, and other issues.

Consult a lawyer for a more detailed/individualised explanation.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Can one legally force one's parents to create a retroactive Trust Fund?

 

[auntiehill]

A trust can be set up for a family or for an individual. You (as the person creating the fund) can specify the terms of when the person is allowed to have access as part (after your death, when they reach a certain age, etc).

You can set up a family trust (your children or grandchildren) and make one member a trustee, who is in charge of seeing the shares divided and whatever terms are met by the individual. For example, my parents made me the trustee of our trustfund. I am to see to it that my sisters and my nephew (upon turning age 18) get their share. However, for my oldest sister (aka, loser-sister), I am not to give her a dime if she's (to my knowledge) on drugs or alcohol. So I would be completely within my rights to demand a drug test from her before signing the papers.

Of course, after all these years, I do not know if there is any money left in the trust, since my parents are still alive and are still in control of it. I haven't asked, because I don't really care. It's not mine until they die, and that's not something I look forward to.

 

[Holdfast]

Can one legally force one's parents to create a retroactive Trust Fund?

Actually, you sort of can, at least in the UK (I presume similar legal shenanigans are possible in the USA) if you can amend a will appropriately after they pass away.

 

[RJDiogenes]