In the event that both my husband and I die at the same time, I do not want my children to receive the bulk of our estate at the age of 18. Is there a way to ensure that they don’t waste their inheritance?

You may set up a testamentary trust for minor children in your Will. In this trust you may specify that the beneficiaries, your children, will receive distributions of the total amount of the trust spread out over several distributions. You may also create qualifications for the distributions, such as making them contingent upon graduation from a four-year college. For example, many parents will designate that distribution occur when the child turns 21 and then again when the child turns 25. This ensures that he or she will not receive a bulk sum from the estate and also may receive it at an age when he or she might be more mature and ready to handle the responsibility. The guardian for the children may also be instructed in the Will to use the testamentary trust for the purpose of paying tuition for higher education, for traveling abroad or other educational purposes. This also allows the parents to provide for their children’s education out of the trust without giving that amount directly to the children when they turn 18 years of age.