How to Avoid Trust Disasters: Corporate Trustees, Family Conflict, & Estate Planning | Sarah Lashua

Описание: If you’ve ever wondered how to keep your kids from fighting, how to structure your estate so it's actually easy to administer, or why corporate trustees exist (and why they often save families from chaos), this episode is full of essential insights.

Sarah also dives into practical tools that most families never get told about:
• When a corporate trustee becomes a MUST, not a luxury
• How to design trusts that don’t destroy family relationships
• Why liquidity matters more than most people realize
• Charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) as tax-saving, legacy-building vehicles
• Using donor-advised funds wisely
• How inherited IRAs create passive, unexpected tax burdens
• And the emotional side of estate cleanouts — “your stuff is not your legacy”

📞 Connect with Today’s Guest — Sarah Lashua
Website/LinkedIn:   / sarahlashua  
Phone: 940-310-6922
Email: [email protected]

🏠 About Your Host —
Matt Templeton is a Real Estate Planner, long-time real estate expert, and the founder of Templeton Real Estate Group, serving clients across DFW, TX and Albuquerque, NM. Matt helps families strategically build, preserve, and transfer wealth through smarter real estate decisions — especially when navigating inheritance, senior transitions, trust complications, and estate planning.
Matt collaborates with attorneys, CPAs, trust officers, and financial advisors to give clients the full team they need to protect and steward their assets across generations.

👉 If you need referrals, guidance, or help navigating your own wealth-transfer or real-estate planning situation, reach out anytime.
Contact Matt:
📧 [email protected]
📞 972-677-3991

📘 Show Notes & Key Topics
00:00 — Introduction to Sarah & the Role of Corporate Trustees
What a trust officer actually does, and why naming family members as trustees often creates emotional, legal, and financial problems.

02:00 — The Hidden Liability of Being a Trustee
How naming your child, sibling, or spouse as trustee changes family dynamics — and exposes them to personal legal risk.

03:00 — What Corporate Trustees Do Daily
Distribution requests, monthly allowances, document reviews, ongoing communication, and helping families navigate needs.

05:00 — Privacy, Money, & Awkward Conversations
Why trustees often must examine beneficiaries’ outside income and assets — and why this can be uncomfortable.

06:00 — The #1 Trust Structure to Avoid: Pot Trusts
Why pot trusts often explode with sibling rivalry, conflict, and impossible administration requirements.

08:00 — Flexibility in Documents: Why It Matters
How rigid estate documents trap trustees, beneficiaries, and families — and when courts must step in.

10:00 — What Makes a Trust Too Small or Too Large for Corporate Trustees
Minimums, ideal sizes, and when combining trusts is the best solution.

11:00 — Red Flags When Reviewing Trusts or Estates
Liquidity issues, toxic assets, land, mineral interests, and difficult beneficiaries. What makes a trust too complicated to accept.

13:00 — Fiduciary Duty: What Most People Don’t Understand
Why self-dealing, bad record-keeping, and “favoritism” create lawsuits and family division.

15:00 — How Sibling Rivalry Ruins Inheritances
Real-world dynamics: locked gates, unmaintained property, differing intentions for land, and multi-heir gridlock.

16:00 — Structuring Real Estate Inside an Estate or Trust
Why real estate is the #1 source of inheritance conflict and how to plan better on the front end.

21:00 — Case Study: Big Land + Many Beneficiaries
Why large families with large assets often face inevitable conflict — and how to build escape routes into your plan.

23:00 — Executors, Accusations, & Mismanaged Estates
How executors become the target and why unclear documents accelerate conflict.

24:00 — Estate Planning Reality: People Behave Differently When You’re Gone
Why your heirs won’t act the same way once the “glue” of the family is gone.

27:00 — Estate Cleanouts: The Emotional & Comical Realities
Foreign coins, old collections, coffee mugs, and the truth: your legacy is not your stuff.

31:00 — What Families Should Do Now
Decluttering, gifting heirlooms early, sharing stories, and reducing future burdens for loved ones.

35:00 — Why EVERY Adult Needs a Will (Not Just Seniors)
The dangers of holographic wills and multi-state property.
A Florida example where the wrong person inherited due to an invalid will.

39:00 — Revocable Trust Mistakes Everyone Makes
Creating a trust but failing to retitle assets — why probate still gets triggered.

41:00 — Charitable Planning: Underused but Powerful
Charitable remainder trusts, donor-advised funds, and legacy-building strategies.

47:00 — The Tax Strategy Most Families Haven’t Heard Of
Using a CRT to stretch inherited IRAs beyond 10 years and dramatically reduce taxes.