Making a will

A little side track but this reminded me of a friend of mine whose father just passed away about a month ago.  He's a very irresponsible 30 year old and his father set up a trust so he would only get $2000 per month for his inheritance.

My friend was pretty ticked when he found out about it and was upset with his dad because he didn't think he was responsible enough to get all the money at once.  Then 2 weeks after his father passed away he goes out and buys two ridiculous cars with $2000 per month of car payments.  /facepalm

So, Dad was right, he was too irresponsible and he made the right call.

So, my vote is for the trust fund.

Trishie, does Baltimore have a prepaid college tuition plan? If yes, why not make arrangements for the funding of the prepaid plan (which can be done before the child reaches 18)? Allow disbursements for college expenses. Of course, before they even get to college, you'll want to allow disbursements for high school scholarship, athletics and extra-curricular activities.

I'd also seek the advice of an estate planning professional. They would likely have lots of ideas about what a good trust looks like, and what a bad one looks like. You can set up a revocable trust now, if you wanted. I'd use that opportunity to speak to a personal trust administrator and pick their brain about best practices.