My wife and I live in Sioux Falls and have three young children - ages 5, 8, and 11. Should we set up a personal trust created upon our deaths?

There are many good reasons for having a trust created upon your death.  These trusts may be created through a will or a living trust:

• You have a minor child or children with special needs or other diabilities who can't financially care for themselves.
• You have concerns that your beneficiary may not be able to effectively manage the inherited assets.
• You'd like to protect the assets from any future creditors a beneficiary may have.
• You want to provide a structure around when, under what circumstances, and for what purposes your beneficiary should receive assets.
• You'd like to minimize the amount of estate taxes that might have to be paid at the death of the beneficiary through generational tax planning.
• You want to ensure that the trust assets eventually go to specified beneficiaries, whether those are individuals or charities.

Source:  The Vanguard Group, Inc.