Using a trust when you have adult children with alcohol or addiction issues

Attorney Chris Merrill: Where we are helping parents to deal with adult children that are alcoholics. That adult child could be 18, or could be 68, it doesn't matter. That we are addressing that so that the parents, because they want to be able to deal with this, where there is adult children that are alcoholics. We do run across, quite a bit, where there is some type of addiction issue that we include as part of our trust is the point.

Attorney Tom Olsen: When, whether it's alcohol or drug addiction issues and there are people out there listening right now thinking, "Oh, I've got a child like that," a son or a daughter, folks do not be ashamed about it because, believe me, we know that it happens much more frequently than you might ever believe.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Exactly.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Just people aren't talking about it because it's too upsetting, traumatic, and, I guess, some sense of shame that goes with it. What we are saying is that if you've got an adult child like that, we don't just want to leave him or her their share outright, it's going to disserve them. It's going to cause things to go worse for them. Instead, we put it into a trust for their benefit. We have somebody else, typically a sibling, manage that money and dole it out to them for their best support as they can. The sibling that's usually managing that money, they don't give a big chunk of money to the alcoholic child every month.

Instead what they do is they pay that child's rent directly. They pay their mobile phone directly. They pay their electric bill directly. They do whatever they can to make sure that they've got a roof over their head. They can't stop them from having some allowance and even drinking themselves to death, that might have essentially happened. You can't stop that, but at least in the meantime they've got a comfortable place to live and they are not living on the street.

Attorney Chris Merrill: That instruction set is done the way we put it together with the trust, so that it helps give the parents a peace of mind that things are set up properly so that when you pass away these particular children with these addiction issues that you know as a parent you have a peace of mind that there is something in writing, and something in place that will be there hopefully for quite some time that will be able to help. Like you said, Tom, often it's not giving them money directly, it's having an appropriate person in charge to pay to have a roof over their head.

We want the listeners to know we help people everyday with these situations. Again, like you said, Tom, we want to help you. There is nothing to be ashamed about. It happens in almost every family. It's about, we are here to help you because in particular in that situation we want to give you a peace of mind that you know that if you were to pass away that these children, there will be a way to help to take care of them.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Exactly. A lot of the parents are really doing this for their addicted kids already. They just want to make sure that when they pass away that that same financial benefit can continue on just like they've been doing while they are alive.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Because, if it's not in writing, it's not going to be automatic.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Exactly. Yes. That's one of the reasons that we are using a living trust for people.