u/Public_Opine

State is North Carolina.

I've hired an attorney and had my initial consultation with her about establishing a revocable trust for my estate. Current plan is to leave 50% of the estate to specific relatives and friends and the remainder 50% to establish an ongoing educational trust for beneficiary nieces / nephews, grand- nieces / grand-nephews (per stirpes). It would cover college/university/trade school only and it's possible this would become generational.

I plan to talk further with my attorney about this topic, as well as a more detailed conversation with a corporate trustee who would administer the educational trust for feedback and their recommendations, but would like to walk into those conversations having though through some of the trickier aspects beforehand.

My question: What guardrails and guidance should I place in the educational trust to keep it from being abused and avoid fraud (while not obtaining access to the funds so onerous that it doesn't get used or make it difficult to administer)?

Some notes I've jotted down as I've thought about this.

• Limit of payment for associates degree - 3 years max subject to review of trustee of circumstances
• Limit of payment for bachelors degree - 5 years max subject to review of trustee of circumstances
• Limit of payment for masters degree - 3 years max subject to review of trustee of circumstances
• Limit of payment for trade school - 3 years max subject to review of trustee of circumstances
• No doctorate coverage
• No primary or secondary education (K-12) coverage
• OK to cover associates + bachelor + masters in sequence, don't have to pick just one
• Must carry minimum 2.5 GPA or pass in pass/fail for subsequent payments. OK to re-qualify if GPA dips below and relative gets their GPA average back up
• Cover tuition, on-campus lodging, book costs. (probably needs input from professional trustee firm)
• Currently thinking student or family would cover any off-campus housing and stipend/living expenses but if I can put reasonable guardrails around that might also include this

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on additional reasonable guardrails or gotchas I should consider.

I live in North Carolina US. My mother passed a couple of years back and my siblings & I were co-executors of her moderately complex estate. We gained an understanding and appreciation for how much work it can be and I don't want to saddle anyone handling my estate with that.

I’ve hired an estate attorney and am creating a revocable joint trust for myself & my wife; we want to include a couple of trustee services as part of that process. If they're still alive and able/willing, I'd like one of my siblings to be the primary trustee for us but more for oversight, not to perform the bulk of the work. Hopefully the revocable joint trust will help keep most things out of the probate process, but recognize there will still will be a lot to do.

We have no children and plan to leave 50% of our estate to siblings & individuals and use the other 50% to establish an ongoing educational trust for our grand-nieces and nephews (and their children should it extend that far) via sub-trust.

I am planning on obtaining two types of assistance from a professional trustee firm:

A) Estate executor / trustee services

As noted above, I’ve been through being an executor on my mom’s estate and want to have my primary trustee hire professional services to help with handling most of the administrative aspects including valuing estate assets, completing all the required filings with clerk of court, accounting, tax, distribution of assets, etc.

B) Ongoing trust administration for educational trust

With oversight from my primary trustee relative, would like for the professional trustee firm to administer the educational trust established for our per stirpes grand nieces & grand nephews (and their children) college or trade education. Right now I assume that would include managing remaining assets, filing taxes, etc. but also reviewing claims and making payments for our relative's tuition, books, lodging, etc. for university or trade schools within reasonable boundaries I plan to define (limited # years, 2.5 GPA or better, etc.) to prevent misuse.

Once my primary trustee relative passes or loses interest, I'd be fine with either another relative picking that up to oversee or for the corporate trustee continuing to run until depleted.

My questions:

1) Any feedback or caveats on the two services I'm thinking of including or my approach?

2) Who I should consider to hire for these services?

I've researched two regional professional trust companies with offices in NC who offer both these services. My attorney has dealt with both of them and likes them, but she also recommended also considering larger national investment firms like Fidelity or Schwab (we have accounts at both of them) especially for #B educational trust as our families are fairly widely geographically dispersed across the US.

Reviewing at the Schwab / Fidelity websites I don't think they offer detailed services related to my #A executor-type assistance.

My attorney has experienced some issues with larger bank's trust groups administering educational trusts and creating issues for the beneficiaries getting paid so I'm not considering them at the moment. I do have some concern for that issue with a larger Fidelity or Schwab as well.

I have an idea on fees from one of the local professional trust firms; it's generally in-line with what an AUM financial planner would charge which doesn't seem all that excessive. I've got outreach to both Fidelity and Schwab to find out their fees & other insights on their offering in this area.

Thanks in advance for any insights

I’ve got 2 BB accounts and the first time I noticed I didn’t get an operation reward boat on one of them after op end I thought “maybe I claimed it and just wasn’t paying attention”. Timing is after the latest big game update.

The second time I got suspicious and started paying attention.

Has happened 2 more times since then. Not always on the same account, it varies between the two. Also does not happen every op, but maybe 1 out of 3.

I reported it. Anyone else with multiple accounts see this? Doesn’t seem to be happening for those with single accounts in my task force.

With our current water restrictions looking for a good touchless car wash in north Charlotte or Huntersville area for my GMC 2500HD.

Got it stuck in some mud at Watkins Glen a couple weekends ago and really needs a decent cleaning.

Know some of these places have narrow tracks that don’t fit trucks well.

TIA

Helping my mother-in-law since she doesn't currently have internet (or good search skills, lol).

She has a burned garage she'd like to have torn down and hauled away, down to concreate slab. Wood structure for 3 walls & roof still there but you can see through walls pretty easily.

Searching I find a few places: Fire Dawgs, Jarhead Junk and JunkOut among them.

Thought I'd ask for feedback on these places beyond what I can read on their google reviews, as well as any other companies I should suggest she contact. I'm not local to Ft Wayne so don't have a lot of folks I can ask other than what I find online.

TIA!