Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure where to post this.

Teen with trust fund wants $$$ to buy their first car within the next three months. Trust fund will transfer completely to teen in about 12months. If you were trustee, what would you do?

Can you explain to them how their trust works since they are 12 months off from accessing it and making a number of bad decisions. Please don’t buy them a car. Can they use a family car?

Ok I thought he was trying to buy a Ferrari and his trust would be millions.

20k car seems more than reasonable. Does he have a separate college fund? Orphan with 450k trust won’t last long.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. The trust transfers to the teen at 18 per the orphans court in the state where they reside. I’m the court-appointed trustee. The car is $20,000.
I’d rather let the judge decide to approve/deny the request and maintain good relations with the teen (and their parent) instead of trying to convince them to delay or reduce the amount. They have about $450k in total.

OMG, that is not an expensive car! You are acting like it is a luxury vehicle.

Seriously, an 18 yo orphan deserves a 20k car. I would seriously consider encouraging them to spend more and buy a nice new car (maybe 60k) so they can build a positive emotional connection with what their parents left them. I would also work through with them about the expected growth of their money, the costs associated with car ownership (maintenance, insurance, etc), and up coming expenses in their lives (college, home ownership, retirement, etc).