Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

My wife and I are 64 and 60, respectively, and are both retired and living in Georgia. We have 3 children; 45, 40 and 39. Our youngest (my stepson) is mentally handicapped. Not severely and he is able to work at a local grocery store. He will always need someone to help him with his checkbook and major decisions, as examples. I am retired from the military and he is considered my dependent because of his condition and consequently has medical insurance. He is not considered a dependent for tax purposes however as he makes more than the minimum allowed to be dependent under those conditions, but not much more! My wife and I are very concerned about after we are gone. Frankly, we are concerned about 1. Having someone we trust to help him with his finances and daily living decisions. and 2. We do not trust the other 2 children to take care of him and, in fact, figure that if we don't take preventive measures, they will have him broke in a short time after we are gone. Not that they would deliberately do that but they historically do not make good life decisions. We completely trust one of our nieces and she is willing but we are not sure the best method to give her the power to vet his decisions so that he can't be taken advantage of after we are gone. The wills should be relatively easy and our assets will be left to our 3 kids and also for our 6 grandchildren. The question is what legal form or method should we use to empower our niece to be able to protect for our youngest after we are gone under these circumstances? Many thanks.

Rick Gray


Asked on 11/08/09, 2:40 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

Your will is the mechanism, and it will NOT be a simply will. The will should contain appropriate trust language (and there may also be standalone trusts too). You may also need to make changes in pension and insurance and deeds coordinated with the will. I'd be glad to discuss the details with you.

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Answered on 11/13/09, 6:07 pm


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