Controlling Children's Distributions

The primary way to manage a child's assets beyond your lifetime is with a trust.  Through a trust, you can designate at what ages your child is to receive distributions.  You can space these distributions out so your child learns to manage assets over time.  You can designate that they receive distributions for certain activities such as pursuing a degree, buying a house, or getting married.  And you can decide who will manage these assets for them.

Also, a well written trust will allow the trustee to invade the trust assets for emergencies and to pay for the needs of your child.

Control of distributions can be accomplished using either a living (or inter vivos) trust, or a testamentary trust.  A living trust is created during the creator's (or settlor's) lifetime, while the testamentary trust is created through the settlor's will.