I’m learning that "unicorns" do exist – in the context of finding a caring trustee for a drug addicted adult child.

Last week, I wrote about the use of an annuity as an estate planning tool to avoid an unmanageable, or possibly destructive, windfall of inheritance money getting into the hands of a vulnerable beneficiary (i.e. an addict).

You can direct your executor to use the addict’s inheritance to purchase an annuity structured so:

1. It’s locked in, preventing the addict from being able to cash it in for a lump sum,

2. Protections are put in place to prevent the addict from borrowing against it, and

3. The addict benefits from their inheritance by receiving a consistent monthly payment.

I dismissed the prospect of setting up a trust for the addict, suggesting that finding a caring trustee (the person in charge of the purse strings of the inheritance) able to deal with the addict’s condition would be like finding a unicorn.

If........

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