The Coaster by Erich Wurster Page A

everything we need to know about the trust that doesn’t exist. What about the trust with all the money in it? How does that work?”
    â€œIn order to avoid paying estate tax on those assets at Joan’s death,” Lang said, “the family trust has to be set up with limited right to the funds for the beneficiary.”
    â€œHow ‘limited’ are we talking about?” I asked.
    â€œJoan will receive all of the income from the trust during her lifetime.” Lang placed his “reading” glasses back on his nose. “She will also have the right to distributions of principal ‘as the trustee, in its sole and absolute discretion, determines to be necessary or advisable for her support, maintenance, health, and education.’”
    â€œThat sounds reasonable,” Joan said. “Support, maintenance, health, education. That’s pretty much everything isn’t it?”
    There was an elephant in the room, but I wasn’t going to point him out as long as he just sat there silently munching hay. Unfortunately, my wife is a pretty sharp cookie and spotted him herself. “It sounds reasonable, but that means you have to get the trustee’s permission any time you want to spend any of your money and it’s in the trustee’s absolute discretion whether to give it to you or not.”
    Now Joan was the one looking ill. “So I’ll need to get Bob’s permission if I want to use the principal?”
    â€œThat’s right,” Lang said. “You’ll need to request a distribution in writing and explain to Bob what it will be used for so he can determine if it’s an acceptable expense under the rules of the trust. Certain recurring expenses can be set up to be paid automatically by the trust. For example, Sam’s own trust paid for his heart medicine every month.”
    â€œJoan, you don’t have to worry about a thing,” I said. “I’m honored Sam would entrust me with such great responsibility and I’ll do my best to honor his wishes, which would first and foremost be that you are taken care of in the manner you deserve. You tell me anything you need and I’ll see that you get it. I’ll be a rubber stamp.”
    â€œThank you, Bob.”
    I truly would do my best to keep Joan happy because she’s a good woman and that’s what Sam would have wanted. But like a lot of husbands, I felt that my mother-in-law thought her daughter could do better. I confess I couldn’t help fantasizing about her being forced to come to me on bended knee for even the barest necessities.
    â€œI think your current car is just fine, Joan, but when your odometer hits two hundred thousand miles, I’d be happy to readdress the situation with you. Good day.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œI said good day!”
    ***
    â€œSo what’s the next step?” I asked Lang.
    â€œThe next step is for us—and you, Bob—to get busy administering this trust. Give us a couple of days to get everything together. Why don’t you come here to our offices Monday morning, let’s say eight o’clock?”
    â€œI certainly want to do my best to carry out Sam’s wishes, but you do understand I’ve already got a full-time job, right?”
    Lang knew perfectly well I didn’t exactly grind out ten-hour workdays all week. I was always available to take his call or go to lunch or do anything else I wanted during the day. But at least he had sense enough not to let the cat out of the bag in front of my wife and mother-in-law. Maybe he wasn’t a crappy lawyer after all. Sarah obviously knew on some level I wasn’t all that busy at work, but we had kind of an unspoken understanding that she wouldn’t say anything about it because it allowed me to handle a lot of the traditionally female household duties like grocery shopping and picking up the kids after school. If I really did work a traditional