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This is not something I have to deal with thankfully but I heard this dilemma on the radio. A guy in his 60s wanted to retire and had a small but reasonably successful business. He transferred the business to one of his children.
He was planning on drafting a will that includes his wife and two daughters both in their late 20s. He is worried about one because she has been addicted to prescription drugs (opioids, benzos, adhd stimulants) since she started college. Despite multiple rehabs, she went back on the stuff.
People were split on this. Half said that addiction is something you can recover from while others said it would be signing her death warrant.
The amount of money is €100,000 for each daughter.
I would leave it with a stipulation of attending rehab again for a year at the best facility I could afford. Once completing treatment, the money would be dispersed in full. Whatever they do after that is on them but at least we gave it one last shot.
This is not something I have to deal with thankfully but I heard this dilemma on the radio. A guy in his 60s wanted to retire and had a small but reasonably successful business. He transferred the business to one of his children.
He was planning on drafting a will that includes his wife and two daughters both in their late 20s. He is worried about one because she has been addicted to prescription drugs (opioids, benzos, adhd stimulants) since she started college. Despite multiple rehabs, she went back on the stuff.
People were split on this. Half said that addiction is something you can recover from while others said it would be signing her death warrant.
The amount of money is €100,000 for each daughter.
Set up a trust for the daughter at risk with the trustee authorized to disperse the funds for housing, food, further education, and a living allowance. Do not give her the entire allowance all at once.
Set up a trust for the daughter at risk with the trustee authorized to disperse the funds for housing, food, further education, and a living allowance. Do not give her the entire allowance all at once.
Think the trust is the best option.
FWIW, we had this issue in my family. I had a great aunt with no children and somehow she left a grand nephew who apparently had a gambling (and possibly drug) addiction something like $250K while the rest of us got modest sums. My uncle (not the addict’s parent) was the executor and was not aware that this change had been made. I am not sure it would have changed how much everyone else got as the bulk of her estate went to charity, but there were certainly concerns that giving him the money to gamble away was not a wise decision. I never heard what happened, as this was over a decade ago now.
Who is supposed to manage the trust for the drug addicted daughter/son? I wouldn't feel right putting that responsibility onto my other adult child nor would I feel it appropriate to forever entangle my successful kid with their addict sibling. If they want to remain close, that's fine. But I'm not going to set up a dynamic where one has financial control and obligation over the one with the addiction issues.
Unless the parent has some reason to believe that their own death is imminent, there is no reason not to hope that their addicted child won't get clean by the time it's time to inherit the money. I would leave them both 50/50 inheritance. I would not play favorites or make value judgments. I would not necessarily tell the addicted one to expect an inheritance, though.
Giving a drug addict money is a recipe for disaster. Even a trust that pays only for food and shelter, means that she is free to spend any other money she can scramble up on drugs.
I've seen too many addicts blow throw inheritances. Not all of them make it out alive.
I'd set aside enough to pay for rehab and set it up so that is the only thing it can be spent on.
Many people make it though life without an inheritance.
I'd put a stipulation in the will that the money is placed into a trust, and paid out as an annuity (lifetime payments, or 26 years like a lotto jackpot).
The condition of receiving the payment, is you have to produce urinalysis or hair follicle drug test every month or quarter. If you fail or choose to forfeit, the money goes to [insert your chosen charity here].
Obviously you have to provide the funds for a professional Executor, an impartial 3rd party with no pre-existing relationship to the trustee(s).
I'd be like being on parole/probation for the rest of your life, which is what a normal life is.
My Parents sort of had this problem with us kids. One Brother would not use money responsibly, the other was erratic, so they put me in charge of the money while they were still alive and me as the executor when they were gone.
Now, if I had been greedy, unfeeling, and unthrifty (qualities I am the opposite), would it still be the same? Maybe yes (but with a different executor)......or maybe they might have left it all to Radio Free Europe.
The, generally speaking, parents choice is what it comes down to and remember, we can hope the best for the generations after but eventually, we are not there to guide them and it is the next generation, or so, play.
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