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Post by miranda on Aug 19, 2015 13:37:32 GMT
I'm curious how your needs may have changed as your kids grew up and did you change your life insurance or wills. I'll explain that better.
My kids are now older now, last one almost out of high school (college money fairly well set type thing.) When they were younger we did wills, set guardians and have life insurance policies that are pretty substantial. The feeling was if something were to happen, we wanted the guardian (or the spouse left) to have an easy go of at least the financial aspect of life.
With the kids older, we don't need as much life insurance for their care certainly, but it would be nice for the remaining spouse. One of the kids is definitely not a self-motivator so i'm not a fan of leaving a lot of insurance money to them at a young age.
So i'm just curious if others have changed things up depending on the ages/stages of their kids? Or am I just plain crazy giving so much thought to this?!!
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hannahruth
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,608 
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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Post by hannahruth on Aug 19, 2015 13:59:45 GMT
As our children grew our wills changed to suit needs but now that they are adults (37 and 31) our wills are as they will stay.
Earlier the assets and any insurance, superannuation or whatever was in trust until adulthood (18 years in Australia) but now it is to go direct to them with no instructions on how the inheritance is to be used.
Our thoughts are that it is our gift to our children what they do with it is up to them. I would like to think it will be used to benefit their long term life and not just in the now.
Up to them in the end.
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Post by ntsf on Aug 19, 2015 14:00:49 GMT
we dropped private life insurance (have some through work) and redid wills and trusts. we have enough assets that life insurance is not really needed anymore.
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Post by utmr on Aug 19, 2015 14:08:20 GMT
Ours is set up so that all funds go into a trust to pay for college (and living expenses during college). After that the money is shut off. They get their pro rata share at 27 with a bachelors degree and 40 without. My feeling was that cutting off the purse strings was an effective way to motivate them to finish school.
Once they're out of school, we will decrease our insurance coverage. It gets expensive and we will not need it as much once the kids are out of school.
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,172
Location: Alabama
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Post by janeinbama on Aug 19, 2015 15:20:17 GMT
We started working with a Financial Planner this year. At his recommendation, we sold some of our whole life insurance policies and put the cash value in retirement accounts. Our DDs are all over 30 and married with kids. My husband was hesitant at first as our insurance agent put the sell on him many, many years ago. I reminded him that we are working toward retirement together and I would rather go with that plan than have excess life insurance proceeds when I was old and could not enjoy them. We both have plenty of coverage.
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 19, 2015 15:21:21 GMT
When our children turned 18 and 19, we established trustees to manage the money they would inherit. We used my sister and DH's brother. The kids would receive 1/3 on our son's 25th birthday (he was the older), 1/3 when he was 30, and the final 1/3 when he was 35. The trustees could use their discretion to fund medical care, education, etc. over and above the distribution. We also provided $10,000 to each trustee as a gift and stated they must take it to honor our wishes.
Now that DS is 35, we are redoing our trust so they inherit immediately, should something happen to both of us. DD lives nearby, so she is the trustee and has our powers of attorney.
I do not think young adults should inherit unrestricted large amounts of money. They are simply not prepared.
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Post by ExpatBackHome on Aug 19, 2015 15:45:06 GMT
We have a trust set up to name guardians. Then whatever is left will be distributed 1/3 at 25, 1/3 at 30 and 1/3 at 35. That way if they blow through some money when they are young, they get a second and third chance to learn from their mistakes.
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scrapaddie
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,090
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Post by scrapaddie on Aug 21, 2015 22:19:54 GMT
I no longer have life insurance at all. My house is paid for and I have made my did a time of death deed so the house will just go automatically to my daughter. I have no debt other than monthly charges on credit cards. There is plenty of cash to pay for my cremation and any type of service my daughter wants and to pay the remaining bills. I see no need for life insurance.
Eta. My daughter is an adult
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