How should your Trust distributions be structured for beneficiaries?

When setting up a trust, you may be concerned about how to structure trust distributions for your beneficiaries after you (the grantors) are no longer living. In other words, what is the appropriate age to distribute trust assets to a particular beneficiary? Should the distributions be split up so they don’t get everything at once? If they do split up distributions, what ages should such distributions take place and in what percentages? What if a beneficiary needs the money earlier than anticipated?

Independent Trustees are persons and/or entities that are responsible for administering your trust, but are not named as beneficiaries. While some trusts require independent trustees, others use independent trustees to primarily avoid a conflict of interest that may otherwise exist if the Trustee were to also be a beneficiary of the trust.