What happens with the money if your child gets hurt and receives a settlement? An injury lawyer reveals options for South Carolina parents to protect their child's settlement money.
Transcript
Parents of children who get hurt often ask us, “how the money can be protected from their child spending at all?” South Carolina law requires just about every child settlement to be protected in one of two ways. Here’s how it works. The first is a conservatorship. A conservator is appointed by the probate court. A parent can be a conservator if you qualify. To do that you've got to get a probate bond which is an insurance policy that pays the child if the conservator misappropriates the funds. Probate courts require an annual report to be filed showing how the money is used in most probate courts require permission before any of the monies used. The catch with a conservatorship is, once the child turns 19 the conservator gives the rest of the money to the child.
The other method is a structured settlement. That’s an investment designed to pay the child's portion of the settlement, plus interest. It’s structured because it allows parents some flexibility to choose when the child gets paid and how much. Generally, parents can choose several payouts between the ages of 18 to 25 and possibly later. The benefit of a structured settlement for many parents is, it allows them to delay or limit payments until their child is hopefully mature enough to handle the money. Those are the ways we protect children from themselves from their own settlements.
If you've got a child who's been seriously hurt you've, got trained medical professionals focused on his medical recovery. You probably need a trained legal professional focused on his legal recovery. let us look after you and your child to provide the legal care his case needs. I thank you for thinking about this with me.
