Many people choose to leave the property and their estate outright to friends, family or charities. However, you may wish to pass on a gift and place restrictions on it, such as if a certain event occurs and the gift goes to someone else. Some estate planning practitioners might refer to this as dead-hand control.
There are challenges with this approach and the biggest risk is that circumstances can change, so it can be very difficult to anticipate what is likely to occur in the future. You would need to sit down with your estate planning lawyer and discuss possibilities and to provide for these. Usually, unclear restrictions on gifts will be unenforceable.
You might assume that adding restrictions only involves adding a few sentences into your estate planning document when you name a beneficiary. However, you must establish an irrevocable trust to impose restrictions or controls on a gift.
An irrevocable trust can be a complicated matter and one that requires that insight of an attorney who has been practicing in this field for a long time.
Establishing your own irrevocable trust is not an extremely difficult process but due to the implications of errors or omissions that you might make in trying to do this on your own, it is far better to work directly with an experienced estate planning lawyer in Pasadena. Discussing the pros and cons of using trust will help direct you to the right type of strategy to accomplish your estate planning goals.
