If you have a blended family and you would like to provide for your spouse while also protecting your estate for your beneficiaries after your spouse passes away, you can leave your assets "in trust" for your spouse in your Custom Will or Living Trust plan.
If you want to leave specific assets or your entire estate for your spouse to use during their lifetime, but you want to decide where the assets go after your spouse passes away or remarries, you will select the "In Trust" option.
Leaving assets to your spouse "in trust" means:
- Your spouse will receive all the trust income (interest and dividends) for your spouse's lifetime.
- You will select how the trust assets can be distributed for the health, education, maintenance, or support of your spouse, and whether these distributions will last for your spouse's lifetime or will end if they remarry.
- You will select who receives the trust assets when your spouse passes away. These beneficiaries can receive your assets equally or in certain portions and can be:
- Your children
- Your spouse's children
- Your children and your spouse's children
- Other relatives or friends that you would like to inherit from you when you and your spouse have passed away, equally or in certain portions