Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

1. You should make yourself trustee, with a successor trustee upon your death or incapacity. Only you can judge whether that successor trustee should be your 19 year old or not. Since he is over 18, he legally can serve as trustee, whether immediately or as successor. 2. That is a perfectly legitimate and moderately common clause. It MUST however, be carefully drafted to avoid a problem called the Rule Against Perpetuities. You do NOT want to draft a trust with provisions like that without a lawyer's assistance, or the entire trust could be voided. You should also consider the fact that you cannot have the sons receive full ownership of the properties without the wives or children eventually getting them. So if you set it up that the house that goes to the first to die, then goes to his brother rather than the heirs, it eventually all goes to the second son's heirs. So all you are doing is setting up a lottery between the two families to see who gets everything and who gets nothing. Again, how to deal with this requires consultation with a good estate planning attorney who can help you sort through all the options and make sure you have a well thought out and drafted estate plan. 3. The age at which it is appropriate for children to receive their full inheritance is a deeply and completely personal thing. An attorney who was personally familiar with you and your children MIGHT be able to give some guidance. There is no way in the world to do so in an internet Q&A.