A minor cannot inherit directly in California, so if you leave money to a child under 18 without a structure, the court appoints someone to manage it and hands the entire balance over on their eighteenth birthday. A trust lets you pick both the manager and the timing.
Eighteen is the default. It is almost nobody's actual preference.
The two decisions
Who raises the child, and who manages the money. They do not have to be the same person, and in plenty of families they should not be. Guardian nomination goes in your will. Money management goes in your trust.
Splitting the roles creates a natural check. It also creates friction, so if you split them, pick two people who can hold a civil phone call.
Staged distributions
The common structure holds everything in trust, with the trustee paying for health, education, and support along the way, then distributing principal in stages. A typical pattern is a third at 25, half the remainder at 30, the balance at 35.
Some families go later. Some hold it entirely in the trustee's discretion for life, with the child able to serve as their own trustee at a set age, which keeps a layer of creditor and divorce protection in place. There is no single right answer, only the one that matches your kid.
Money for college is not money for a Porsche
The trustee's spending standard is the lever most parents ignore. 'Health, education, maintenance and support' is a familiar standard with real case law behind it. You can also add specific direction, like funding a down payment or matching earned income. Be concrete about what you want funded.
One pot or separate shares
With young children, a single common trust for all of them, spending as needed until the youngest reaches a set age, mirrors how you would actually parent. The 8-year-old's braces do not come out of a separate ledger.
With older or widely spaced children, separate shares are usually fairer. A 22-year-old should not be waiting on a 6-year-old to finish college before receiving anything.
“Parents ask me what age is right. I ask what their child is like at 19. That answer is more useful than any number I could put in a template.”
Delia Vasquez-HartRetirement accounts need their own thought
Naming a minor directly as beneficiary of an IRA creates the same problem the trust was built to avoid, and the distribution rules for inherited retirement accounts have their own timelines. Whether to name the trust as beneficiary is a real decision with tax consequences, and we work it through with your CPA rather than guessing.
Life insurance is usually the funding
For a young family, the trust is often mostly funded by term life insurance rather than accumulated assets. Name the trust as beneficiary, not the child. A policy payable to a minor lands right back in front of a judge.
Questions we get asked
What if I do nothing?
The court appoints a guardian of the estate, that person reports to the court annually, and the child receives everything at 18. It works, in the sense that a fire extinguisher works. It is not planning.
Can my sibling be both guardian and trustee?
Yes, and many families do it for simplicity. The tradeoff is no independent check on spending. If the amounts are large, separate them.
What about a UTMA account instead?
Simple and cheap, and the money still transfers outright at the age the account specifies, which in California is 18 or up to 25 depending on how it was set up. For meaningful sums a trust gives far more control.
Does the trust pay for private school?
It pays for whatever you authorize. If private school tuition matters to you, name it in the document rather than hoping the trustee reads your mind.
Before your consultation, write down the ages at which you would want each child to receive money and why. Bring that note. It is the part of the drafting I cannot do for you, and it takes about ten minutes of honest thinking.