Lawyer explains why parents should opt for having a trust fund rather than a will for their kids

There are a lot of things to keep in mind when a person who owns assets has kids. While they love their kids and naturally want to leave them with a lot of money, doing so in their will might not be the most effective way to do things, according to this money protection attorney on TikTok. Brittany Cohen–who goes by @brittanycohen_attorney on TikTok–spoke about how instead of having a will, people can opt for trust funds to ensure that the money falls into the desired hands. In her caption, she writes, "Trusts are for the middle class too" and her video proves just that. 

Cohen begins her video by saying that there are six things she would never do as a money protection attorney. The first thing is she would never leave anything at all to her kids when she dies. Instead, she would simply leave everything to a trust where her kids would be beneficiaries of that trust. The trust she would use for this would be a revocable living trust. The second thing she would do is, "I would never name my minor children as the beneficiaries of my life insurance accounts." What she would do instead is set up a revocable living trust, designate the trust as the beneficiaries of her life insurance amounts and then name the minor children as the beneficiaries of the trust. 

The third thing Cohen plans is to never add her children's names to her home as a way to trick Medicaid Recovery. She would, instead, put up her home in a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and then name her children as the beneficiaries of that trust. She says that the fourth thing she would never do is add her children's names to her bank account. She says, "Instead, I would set up a revocable living trust and put my bank account in that revocable living trust and name my children as the beneficiaries of that revocable living trust thing."

The fifth thing Cohen says is to never add her kids' names to the deed of her primary residence. The reason for that is to avoid probate court. What she chooses to do instead of this is to put her primary residence into a revocable living trust and name the beneficiaries of that revocable living trust. The last thing she does is to never have her kids go through probate court. She would rather just set up a revocable living trust that allows the kids to avoid court altogether. She adds, "So they don't have to spend unnecessary time, energy and money going to court to own the assets that I want them to inherit."

People in the comment section have shared thoughts too. @ha14js asks Cohen, "What is a good age to set up a trust?" Cohen replied by saying, "If you own anything in your name, it's a good time to consider. Most often, I see people who have children and/or own property create a trust."  @retta_redo asked, "Who do you put as the trustee if your kids are young and you have no adults you trust to handle the trust for the kids?" Cohen promptly replied to that, saying, "If you don't have any family or friends you trust, you can have either a private fiduciary be the trustee or even a bank!" 

You can follow Brittany Cohen (@brittanycohen_attorney) on TikTok for lifestyle-based content.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 7, 2024. It has since been updated.