When planning the future of your estate, one question inevitably arises: how much should you leave to your children? According to financial experts, estates in middle-class America range from $400,000 to $600,000 in value. In most cases, two to three children serve as the top heirs of the estate, with more beneficiaries often waiting in the wings. How can you make a sound decision, and ensure you don’t give too much to your children?

Start with mindful planning. On average, inheriting children consume an estate within three years, with many depleting the estate in just 18 months. Their parent’s legacy, represented by their estate assets, almost instantly disappears. Even with the best intentions, heirs frequently miscalculate how long these assets will last, ease up on their jobs and make plans for premature retirement. But thankfully, with proper planning, you have the opportunity to thoughtfully care for everyone involved—children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters and even your favorite charities and nonprofits.

A Practical Application for Your Estate Plan

Let’s imagine that you have two adult children: Amy and Nick, who are both in their early 40s. Amy has experienced her share of success. She has a college degree, has developed a prominent career and is married with no kids. Nick, on the other hand, has absorbed a few bumps in the road. With just a few years of college under his belt, he finds himself in-between jobs while raising his child alone. You love your kids—but you also want to serve God with a gift that makes an eternal impact. What do you do with your estate?

Many people would give their inheritance to the child with more pressing needs. Or, to ensure absolute fairness, they would split the estate evenly. Unfortunately, both solutions often yield negative results. Why? In all likelihood, Nick would spend his lump-sum inheritance to take care of immediate needs and wants, leaving no inheritance for use down the road. Eventually, Amy may have children or be downsized, with no tangible outlet for her share of the inheritance. Plus, neither solution fulfills your second goal: to serve God with a lasting gift.

In this situation, the best solution is to give 100 percent of the estate to Amy and Nick plus 50 percent to God. But how can you gift 150 percent of your estate?

Simple: place assets in a revocable living trust (also refereed to as an RLT), which avoids probate, providing savings of two to five percent. Then name Amy as the successor trustee and give her half the estate outright, making sure she saves at least 50 percent. Your revocable living trust instructs Amy to put the other half of the estate into a charitable trust (which you create when you sign your RLT), which provides a steady, lifetime income for Nick.

When Nick dies, the assets from the charitable trust support the work of a charity, such as American Bible Society’s Bible Fund. You may also leave funds for a “Kingdom Fund,” which enables you to provide income for five or six of your favorite charities from your assets. An American Bible Society Kingdom Fund may pay half the fund’s income for up to 40 years, while the other half goes to American Bible Society. After that, the fund’s income is used to support Bible translation and engagement.

In the end, half of your estate would go to Amy outright, giving her the opportunity use all of her inheritance to augment her retirement income. The other half would provide a stable lifetime income for Nick. He can use this income to care for his child and pay bills as he continues to search for a stable job. Nick’s 50 percent (the principal in the charitable trust) then goes to a difference-making charity to accomplish an eternal goal—a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

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