Wills For Single People With Children

What I have to set up a trust . . . sounds complicated

For a single person with children under 18, the normal route is to that all of one’s assets will on your death, become part of a trust known as a discretionary trust for the benefit of the children until they reach maturity. Again it is normally the case that the trust will remain in place until the youngest child of the trust reaches the age of 20 or 21. There may be a significant spread of ages between children, but even though the trust is in existence it doesn’t mean that payments cannot be made to older children. You can tell your trustees when to wind up the trust or you can leave it to their discretion to decide.

While trusts may sound a bit daunting they are tried and tested methods of managing assets in these situations.

You will have to appoint two trustees to manage the trust. These are normally are trusted relations or friends. They generally have a degree of financial acumen and be relatively young in that older trustees may have passed away by the date of your death.

This depends on your circumstances. If the father of your children is not alive or other circumstances arise where the father of your children is not present then you can appoint a testamentary guardian to look after your children. This will be the person who will manage the day to rearing of your children until they are 18. The persons who are appointed trustees can fill this role, but other persons can also be appointed. Your children may have a favoured relative or someone else they know and are comfortable with. These could be suitable for this position.

If the father of your children is alive and he is not already their guardian, he has the right to apply to court to be appointed guardian. Unless there are grounds why he should not be appointed guardian, it is likely that the father of your children will be appointed guardian along with your guardians appointed in your will.

The question may arise in this context of where your children should live and this is known as custody. Guardians of children normally have custody but each situation is different and specific advice should be obtained to consider the range of options or outcomes depending on any particular set of facts.

I don’t really know what will I own when I die, this for me is a big concern.

It need not be. How these will arrangements operate is that all of your assets are placed into the trust “pot” so to speak when you die. You are free to buy and sell assets and deal with your assets during your lifetime. Your trustees will then manage your assets as best they see fit.

You will have wide scope of persons that you may wish to benefit, but this brings into focus the persons or classes of persons that you wish to favour.

B. Drafting a will for a single person with children over 18.

If you have children over 18 then your will drafting is a little less complex than if your children are under 18.

Any person over 18 has full legal capacity and have the right and ability to own assets as they consider fit. However, 18 may be young for any child to inherit an asset and so, you still may wish to establish a trust for your children until the youngest is at least 21 or perhaps 23. This would be a discretionary trust similar to that mentioned above.

If your children are adults and say for example, over 25, and are capable of managing their affairs then, you have a lot of flexibility as to how you wish to favour your children. A trust is generally not needed in those cases. As of the time of writing (July 2020) a parent can leave a child up to €335,000 tax free. For any sums inherited beyond that the amount if the tax is 33%.

Your adult children can also be the executors of your estate and also guardians of any of your children under 18.

For more general information, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). This will give you some further information which applies to all wills including this case.