In the unlikely event that both parents passes away at the same time, it is preferable that the parents can agree on who will be guardian for their child.  If this doesn’t happen, then there will probably be a contested court case if there are competing parties that want guardianship of the child.

Once you have a permit and you own a firearm, you are the only person that can that gun.  If you want to bring your spouse or child to a firing range to shoot, you must be there to supervise at all times.  Even if your spouse is an avid shooter, they cannot take your gun and go shoot without your being right there next to them.  This can be a problem if you’re a family who is responsible with guns but don’t want to buy 2 of every firearm so that everyone owns one.

This is where a Gun Trust comes in.  A Gun Trust is a trust set up specifically with federal and state laws on firearms in mind.  It has to comply with the National Firearms Act (NFA of 1934), the Gun Control Act (GCA of 1968) and the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA of 1986).  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) is responsible for the registration of firearms.  To comply with BATFE rules, to transfer ownership of a firearm, you must fill out an application, pay a registration tax, provide fingerprints, photographs and obtain the signature of a Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO).  The last part is the part that a Gun Trust is made to get around.   As I said before, it might be hard or impossible to have a CLEO sign off on an application.  Under the NFA, transfers to a Trust does not require a CLEO signature.

So how is a Gun Trust set up?  The original trustee is the person who owns the guns or other firearms.  They transfer the firearms into the trust and names additional trustees.  All trustees to the Trust is allowed unrestricted use of the firearms owned by the trust.  So anyone that you want to give access to your guns, you simply list them as a trustee.

A Gun Trust is usually a stand alone trust that is separate from your other estate planning documents and usually separate from any other trust that you might set up to hold other types of property.

If you own a firearm in or around the Boston metro area and think that you might benefit from a Gun Trust, give me a call and we can discuss whether you need one.

For example, the will would need to say similar to this: “I intentionally omit my son, John Smith, because he is otherwise provided for.” In this case, the child would be unable to claim, It would need to be shown that it was an accident or mistake that the child was not included in the will for them to receive a share.

The easiest way to avoid this situation is to have your will and estate plan reviewed every time there’s a major life event (such as marriage, death, birth of a child) or simply every 5 years.

If you have a will, you can create a testamentary trust to hold your estate for your children until they reach majority or even older.  This way your ex-spouse can not ever touch your money.  This can also be accomplished with the use of a living trust.

However, some attorneys like to include language leaving one dollar or a small amount to the children in question.  The purpose of this is to make it perfectly clear that they have not forgotten the child.  It is not necessary to explain why you are excluding the child from the will.  These steps will help prevent one from arguing in court that he or she had been forgotten or that there was a mistake in the will.

It is also advisable that if you are to specifically disinherit an immediate family member such as a spouse or child, the attorney performing the Will signing should videotape the signing for further proof that you did not sign under duress and that you were of sound mind when you made the Will.

Government benefits however are notoriously underfunded and provides the individual with the minimum required to live. You, as a parent, want more for your child and that’s where a Special Needs Trust comes in.

A Special Needs Trust is a specific type of trust that is set up for disabled children usually by their parents or grandparents for their benefit. This trust will hold money or an inheritance for their benefit without disqualifying them from their government benefits. How is this accomplished? Well, the trust money is not controled by the child or individual receiving the income from it. They don’t get a say on when and how much they get. That decision gets left to a third party – a trustee. Since the child or individual has no control over the money, it is not considered a countable asset for governmental benefit purposes.

In doing your estate plan, think about any disabled children you might want to benefit and set up a Special Needs Trust for them. Also, if you know of any grandparent or aunt who is thinking of leaving money or property to your disabled child, let them know that leaving the money or property outright to them will disqualify them from government aid and that they should set up a Special Needs Trust as well.

Adult adoption is when one adult adopts another adult. This typically happens with same-sex couples where one or both of the parties are beneficiaries to a sizable fortune or inheritance. Most trust and will documents will say that inheritances are kept in the family – to children and their spouses and their children. However, since most states do not allow for same-sex marriage, the only way around this is to make your partner, your child. This sounds very non-intuitive and unconventional – and it is.

Like the article points out, no one knows how successful this strategy of estate planning is. We do have several dozen cases from around the country that shows when it does not work. It does not work usually because the courts strikes down the adoption based on fraud and because there is no true parent-child relationship – especially because a parent/child sexual relationship is against public policy.

So at the end of the day, is this a common strategy of planning for same-sex couples? No. Does it affect most people or same-sex couples? No. It is only something that someone might think about if they had very wealthy relatives that were leaving them something in trust that they themselves could not control.

[Adult Adoption a High-Stakes Means to an Inheritance]