I have a problem that I hope other people on the forum can advise me on. I decided to write this anonymously as it is rather personal but I am sure there are many parents/siblings who may be facing the same situation and have found a solution.
My mother has had a will for many years, stipulating how property is to be divided amongst my brother and myself. There has never been an issue who gets what so this is not the problem at all. Unfortunately, my brother has a mental health issue, as well as a life threatening illness (which I cannot go into detail here) and he refuses to acknowledge that he has a major problem with his finances and cannot pay any of his bills. It will be only a matter of time the debt collectors will be knocking at his door again. He spends money on the most ridiculous objects and then claims he has no money to pay the bills.
The problem my mother faces is how does she legally protect her son from destroying his life financially in the future when she is no longer able to bail him out continuously. He will need care due to illness in the next 10 years but any money/property she wills to him, will be spent or lost due to his obsessive behavior with spending money. How do you protect a child from themselves after you have died? She knows about Trusts etc but he will contest this...she is certain of that and knows he will give me a hard time about it as well.
You may say 'it’s his life and he has to live with his poor decisions' but I could not accept ever that my brother has lost our family home due to bad debts. I really don’t know how to advise my mum. He is also going to need some sort of income coming in, so how do you do that as well...I don’t want him spending the whole amount at once. And who looks after all this, a solicitor? There are other problems as well but too numerous to mention so I will just leave it by saying his assets that he will inherit must be protected for him so nobody can make a claim against it.
Can anybody give us some advice as I am sure there are many parents out there who face the same dilemma?
BTW...naturally she is going to her solicitor for advice but she wanted to have it firmly in her mind of how she wanted to go about it before she saw him.
Thankyou for any kind words of wisdom you can offer