Our adult children can’t support themselves. How can we set them up for life?

financialpost.com:

How can we ensure our two adult children, who, due to health challenges, are not able to support themselves financially, will be able to have enough money to live comfortably after we’re gone?

This is the overriding question Russel,* 56, and his wife Janice, 52, are trying to answer. After selling their health practice this year, the Alberta-based couple now has more than $8 million in their jointly owned professional corporation. This is in addition to about $1.2 million in registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) and $1.1 million in individual pension plans (IPPs), invested 70 per cent in stocks and equity-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and 30 per cent in fixed income.

Ideally, they would like to be able to financially supplement their children, now 21 and 25, so that they each have about $5,000 after-tax income each month, or $60,000 annually. “We think our older child, who will graduate university in the next couple of years, should be able to earn about $25 per hour, and our younger child, with appropriate training, could earn minimum wage,” said Russel.

The couple work with a financial adviser to manage their investments, but haven’t been able to gain a clear understanding of how they can achieve this goal. Since selling the practice, Janice has effectively retired, and Russel works part-time, earning $120,000 a year before tax. All of their investments are held in their professional corporation and, in addition to their RRSPs and IPPs, include about $2.2 million in Canadian dividend-paying stocks, which generate $15,000 a month before tax in dividend income ($180,000 a year, equally split for income tax purposes); $2.1 million in cash (33 per cent) and cashable money market guaranteed investment