The Art and Science of Conditional Gifts in Estate Planning

In formulating their trust and estate plans, clients often want to set up benchmarks of achievement before distributions or gifts are made. These benchmarks often involve educational attainment – i.e., that a child obtain a college degree by a certain.  But they may involve more difficult to measure benchmarks or life goals that are arguably not appropriate – i.e., that a child marry or have children of their own by a certain age.  Conditional gifts can easily lead to resentments among beneficiaries, questionable enforceability, disputes, and fiduciary litigation.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to conditional gifting using incentive trusts and other mechanisms, and counseling clients about the real limits and risks of conditional gifting.

Schedule:

• Conditional gifting using incentive trusts and other mechanisms
• Establishing objectively measurable conditions for gifts or distributions
• Types of conditions or benchmarks – education, life goals, etc.
• What’s enforceable, what’s not – counseling clients about limits
• Choosing the right fiduciaries to administer conditional gifts/incentive trusts