Clients who plan to leave an inheritance to a loved one may want to have some control over how the heir spends his or her inheritance. This article provides an example of a woman who does not like her son’s political views and would like to prevent him from using his inheritance to support the causes that she disagrees with. One common way clients can maintain control over an inheritance after they die is by creating a trust. For example, an incentive trust can distribute assets to beneficiaries so long as they meet some type of condition.
Any requirements made by a trust would have to be legal or acceptable for public policy purposes. A trust that seeks to prohibit donations to certain political causes might run into trouble on freedom of expression grounds. This article discusses some of the ways around that like listing acceptable expenses and having the trustee enforce that.
See Kerri Anne Renzulli, How to Control How Heirs Spend Your Money, Time, August 27, 2015.
