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Probate & Trust Law Section Conference Manual ... - Minnesota CLE

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E. Special Family Needs. In some families there may be a need for<br />

individual family members to provide care for elderly family members or<br />

relatives, physically or mentally disabled family members, and non-relatives<br />

who may rely upon the client for certain types of care. Incentive trust<br />

provisions may be drafted to provide significant benefits to a beneficiary who<br />

fills these needs. It is extremely important to carefully craft trust provisions<br />

to fairly compensate a beneficiary who is not able to maintain full-time<br />

employment as a result of the caregiving services provided to family<br />

members and other non-relatives. It may also be appropriate to allow trust<br />

income or principal to continue to be distributed to the beneficiary for a<br />

specified period of time after the death of the disabled person or after that<br />

person is institutionalized.<br />

IV.<br />

Bad Behavior.<br />

A. Addictive/Criminal. Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and criminal<br />

behavior may be discouraged through the use of an incentive trust. The<br />

distribution of income and principal may be discontinued or delayed. At the<br />

same time the incentive trust may provide benefits in order that the family<br />

member or descendant is able to obtain treatment and to ensure that basic<br />

living needs are funded. Some clients may require that a beneficiary make all<br />

medical records available to the trustee and submit to blood tests to allow<br />

the trustee to determine if the beneficiary is involved with substance abuse.<br />

B. Spending. Some clients may desire to limit distributions to<br />

beneficiaries who fall in the category of consummate consumers. <strong>Trust</strong><br />

provisions can require the beneficiary to provide the trustee with income tax<br />

returns and various financial information in order to be eligible for trust<br />

distributions. There are other incentive trust provisions which may give a<br />

trustee the flexibility to withhold distributions to beneficiaries who are not<br />

productively employed or engaged in productive activities. Incentive trusts<br />

will always include spendthrift provisions. Clients will rarely want to see<br />

distributions to a trust beneficiary indirectly used to accommodate the<br />

beneficiary’s creditors or a former spouse of the beneficiary.<br />

C. Charity. While certain clients may desire to encourage the<br />

beneficiaries to be philanthropic, other clients may wish to discourage<br />

charitable activities. Clients may try to discourage unusual or extraordinary<br />

charitable giving while at the same time fostering the appropriate asset<br />

stewardship among younger generation beneficiaries. The client may<br />

establish certain limitations with regard to contributions by trust beneficiaries<br />

to non-profit organizations. If those limits are exceeded, the benefits from<br />

the incentive trust may be reduced by the trustee.<br />

5

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