What is a Withdrawal Right?
Unlike traditional trusts that force a payout at a specific age, a withdrawal right gives the beneficiary the option to demand a distribution.
Flexibility: If the beneficiary reaches the designated age but doesn't need the funds, the money can remain protected within the trust.
Collaboration: The trustee and beneficiary can work together to determine if a distribution makes sense at that time, avoiding the legal and tax headaches of forced payouts.
How to Set Withdrawal Rights
You can customize these settings within the Distributing Your Assets panel under the Sub-Trust Questions section. Here, you can specify:
Which descendants receive an inheritance through the trust.
The age at which they gain the power to withdraw a portion of the assets.
The specific percentage or fraction available to them at that age.
However, you are not able to provision multiple ages so that your children can inherit their trust over time within the workflow. Here is more context as to why.
Why We Use One Age Instead of Multiple Milestones
Our platform allows you to set a specific age and a percentage of the trust (e.g., 50% at age 25) that becomes available for withdrawal. You may notice you cannot set multiple staggered ages (e.g., 25, 30, and 35). This is intentional for several reasons:
Reduced Administrative Burden: Mandatory distributions require a "trust accounting" process that is often time-consuming and expensive.
Avoiding Accounting Headaches: Forced distributions create complex records, especially if a payout isn't made on the exact date required.
Modern Efficiency: By providing a withdrawal right at a single interim age, we provide the beneficiary with access to funds without the rigid requirements of older trust models.
FAQ
Can I distribute inheritance at multiple different ages?
While some traditional estate plans require distributions at several fixed intervals (e.g., 20% at age 25, 20% at age 30, etc.), the Wealth.com platform utilizes a more modern approach called a Withdrawal Right.
Currently, the workflow allows you to set one interim age and a specific fraction (percentage) of the trust that a child can withdraw. You cannot set 3–5 different ages within the automated workflow.
Why we use Withdrawal Rights vs. Mandatory Ages
Mandatory age-based distributions are often considered a "less modern" approach because they can create significant administrative and legal hurdles:
Administrative Burdens: Every time a mandatory age is hit, a trustee must perform a costly and time-consuming "trust accounting" to determine the exact value of the assets.
Loss of Protection: Once a mandatory age is reached, those funds legally belong to the child. This makes the money immediately vulnerable to creditors, lawsuits, or divorce settlements—even if the child doesn't need the money yet.
Lack of Flexibility: A child might be going through a crisis (like addiction or financial trouble) right when a mandatory distribution hits. The trustee would be legally forced to give them the money anyway.
How the "Withdrawal Right" Works
Instead of forcing a payout, a Withdrawal Right puts the power in the beneficiary's hands:
The Age & Amount: You choose an age (e.g., 30) and a fraction (e.g., 50%).
The Option: Upon reaching that age, the child can demand that portion of the trust, but they are not required to.
The Benefit: If the child is doing well and wants to keep the money protected within the trust's "legal wrapper," they can simply choose not to exercise the right.
The Trustee’s Discretionary Power
Regardless of the withdrawal age you set, your Trustee always has the authority to distribute funds at any time for the child’s Health, Education, Maintenance, and Support (HEMS). This ensures the child is taken care of as they grow up, without the rigid "headaches" of fixed distribution dates.
Need more customization?
If your specific goals require a highly complex distribution schedule (e.g., 5 different ages or specific behavioral milestones), this falls outside of our standard automated workflow.
You can schedule a consultation with our Attorney Network. A local attorney can review your goals and draft a fully custom document with multiple restricted tiers for an additional fee.
Lifetime Trusts vs. Age Termination
Our workflow offers two primary paths for a descendant's trust:
Terminate at a Specific Age: The child receives the full balance at a set age (e.g., 35). This option allows you to add one earlier Withdrawal Right.
Lifetime Trust (Terminate at Death): The assets stay in the trust for the child's entire life.
Note: Withdrawal rights are not available for Lifetime Trusts. These are designed for maximum protection against divorce, creditors, or taxes. Allowing a child to "demand" a chunk of a lifetime trust would defeat its protective purpose.