When a California family law judge assigns child support payments as part of a divorce or family law dispute, the obligations of the payer must be met without fail. If the regular income of the payer is not satisfactory to meet the payment requirements, it is possible to use the funds in a family trust to help pay child support as well.
Paying Child Support into a Trust
Trusts can be distributed to named beneficiaries annually – this places finances from the trust into the beneficiary’s personal accounts annually. If the beneficiary of a trust pays child support, the annual trust money is seen as income, so it can and should be used to pay support when necessary.
In other situations, a trust can be setup to give all the funds within it to a name executor or beneficiary at once. Such a spendthrift trust is not immune to being used for child support. The person who receives the money from a spendthrift trust is meant to use it responsibly, which would include setting aside enough to meet foreseeable support payments.
Garnishing a Trust to Take Child Support
As mentioned, child support obligations must be met, or else there could be serious legal consequences imposed on the payer. Courts can be asked to enforce child support orders through various means when obligations are not met. One method the court often uses is wage garnishments, which syphon a percentage of the payer’s paycheck directly to the account of the payee. Similar garnishments can be put on a family trust, taking money out of the trust regularly to meet child support obligations as needed.
Do you need to meet child support obligations but do not know if you can use money from a family trust? Are you owed child support by an ex-spouse who has finances held in a trust? In either situation, you can turn to Gille Kaye Law Group, PC and our Pasadena attorneys for legal guidance and support. We bring more than 30 years of collective legal experience to each case we handle, giving our clients the confidence that their case is on the right track.
Call (626) 340-0955 or contact our firm online for more information.