Andrew Ewalt's Law Blog

Picking A Guardian For Your Children Part 2

Having selected who will act as the guardian it is also important to consider how your assets should be maintained and utilized for your child's benefit. 

It is a very good idea to leave assets in trust for your child's.  Trusts provide a centralized location for management and control of your assets and directions on how your child should benefit from those assets.   

Here is a list of a few things to consider when thinking about a trust for your child.

1.  Should the guardian also be the trustee?  Is he/she good with money? Often parents separate these functions in order to add a second decision maker to the process.

2.  How restrictive should the distributions to the child be?  Income and Principle? Income only? How much desecration should the trustee have in determining when a distribution should be made.

3.   At what age should the child realize full distribution from the trust?  Often parents structure distribution in stages.  One third at age 21, 25 and 30 is a common structure rather then a lump sum at age 18. 18 is common when no trust is used and a probate court is monitoring a minors assets.  Just think about what you would have done at age 18 with thousands and thousands of dollars....new Ferrari come to mind?

Connecticut Probate Fees

I have received a number of questions regarding probate.  A recent Hartford Courant article outlined many of the concerns facing families and fiduciaries administering an estate in a Connecticut Probate Court.  One of the many issues are court fees.  Here is an outline of Connecticut's Probate Court fees for estate administration.. All fees are determined by the gross estate for estate tax purposes, plus all damages recovered for injuries resulting in death, less hospital and medical expenses and attorney's fees and costs, Less 50% of any portion of the property passing to the surviving spouse.

Value of Estates           Fee

$0 to $500                       $25

$500 to $1000                 $50

$1000 to 10,000              $50 plus .01 of all in excess of

                                        $1000

$10,000 to $500,000     $150 plus .0035 of all in excess of

                                      $10,000

$500,000 to $4,754,000     $1,865 plus .0025 of all in

                                           excess of $500,000

Over $4,754,000            $12,500