I was talking with a colleague the other day regarding a trust that he manages for a rather difficult benefiary. The trust is rather small in terms of overall dollars, but he advised me that it consumes a great deal of his time because the beneficiary calls hundreds of times a year - begging for money.
As trustee of this trust, he cannot give out much money because the goal of the person who funded the trust was to have the money last for a long time and only be used in the event of an emergency. The trouble is - EVERYTHING is an emergency to high maintenance beneficiary. These individuals live on the edge of financial ruin: they have trouble choosing friends, they are unable to understand the long term ramifications of their decisions, and they are terrible at budgeting.
It is a great imposition on the trustee to manage these trusts, and if the principal is less than $500,000, it is often not worth their time or energy to manage such trusts. What often happens is that the friend or relative that you named as trustee to help out your child no longer wants to be involved and resigns from the position.
If you are the parent of a high maintence child, and you want to set up a trust for your child, one thing you can do is make the job of the trustee a little easier is to really specify how you want the money to be spent. The more specific you make the trust, the easier it is for the trustee to say yes or no. The child realizes that the trustee has specific limitations, which makes it easier for the beneficiary and the trustee to get along.
The downside to this strategy is that it limits the flexibility of the trustee. However, for smaller trusts, it may be better to avoid the cost of constant trustee turnover than to try and allow for too much flexibility.
