Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Oregon
Setting up revocable living trust
My sister is setting up a living trust and I am the successor trustee. She has 5 adult children that cannot handle money well. When she dies she wants me to control all her assets in the trust, giving the children money only as I see the need and not necessarily distributing the money equally. The money can also be given to charity or grandchildren/greatgrandchildren for education etc. with no time limit. Will all children, grandchildren,charities/etc have to be named as beneficiaries or can the beneficiary be the trust and the money/assets be distributed over time as my sister would have desired had she been living? She is going through a paralegal to draw up the papers and he seems to think the only way to do this is to put me as the sole beneficiary. This doesn't make sense to me since I am not to be the recipient of my sisters money I will just be the decision maker to be sure the money is not squandered away.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Setting up revocable living trust
Your sister needs to see an attorney and not take legal advice from a paralegal. Although it is certainly possible to do what she wants, the paralegal is not doing it at all.
You are correct that setting you up as the beneficiary is not the way to do what your sister wants. You are not the beneficiary, you are only the successor trustee. What the paralegal is suggesting is to give you all the money. If you are the sole beneficiary, you can do whatever you want with the money, including taking yourself to Las Vegas to gamble with the money.
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