Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas

Re: Yearly limit on inheritance

You wanted to know how to pay your daughter a yearly amount, rather than a lump sum inheritance. You didn't state whether your daughter is of the age of majority (age 18), but I assume that she is an adult. A trust will accomplish what you want, and the trust can be either included in your will (a testamentary trust) or started during your life (inter vivos trust or living trust). You might also look into a life insurance annuity. The best thing about a trust is that you can give the trustee discretion to dip into it for unforeseen future needs, such as if she had a catastrophic illness and needed it all for medical bills.

Re: Yearly limit on inheritance

With a trust the trustee that you appoint will make distributions in accordance with your wishes.

Re: Yearly limit on inheritance

It sounds like you need to have a trust set up for the benefit of the daughter. A trust is an instrument that places a sum of money (called a res) into the hands of a person or company who manages the res. This manager is called a trustee. The trustee can then follow your instructions on how, when and why to make distributions to your daughter (who will be called the beneficiary.)

A common trust will provide for periodic payments to a beneficiary for the beneficiary's health, education, maintenance and support. Additionally, trusts usually provide for lump sum payments at different age levels. (For example, in addition to the needs based distributions, the trustee could be ordered to distribute one-third of the trust at the child's 35th, 45th and 55th birthdays.)