Most of us would like to be able to leave our children and grandchildren something in our wills. But how well are we prepared for the future?

Craig Hampton, an academic advisor and taxation expert from the United States, spoke to more than 100 delegates attending the Third Annual Trust and Estates Conference organised by STEP (The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and shocked the audience with his vision of the future.

"It is estimated that in 100 years' time men will be able to have children. You may laugh, but it could be a medical reality," said Mr. Hampton. "By having the foetus develop inside of another animal, doctors believe it could be a reality..."

And he said it is predicted that in the next 50 years a woman will be able to have her eggs stored at the age of 25 and not have a baby until she is 70.

He added that these and other unforeseen events will affect trust practitioners and should impact the way money is left in trusts to be safeguarded for the family in generations to come.

Mr. Hampton said death was something that happened to everyone and to look at what could happen in the 21st century was vital for those who looked after family trusts.

"There are about six billion people in the world today, and somebody who was alive this morning may not make it to the end of the day. One million people will not be alive at the end of today," he told delegates.

Mr. Hampton also pointed out that fewer people now have life insurance than they did in the 1950s and said many other things had changed in this time frame.

In particular he pointed to the make-up of a family and the way it affected money that was passed down through generations.

He said the old-fashioned family of father, mother and children was no longer the most prevalent, but blended families were now the norm with divorced parents with children from different marriages living under one roof - a scenario which may not have been anticipated 100 years ago when some trusts were set up.

He said: "Can you guarantee that your children and grandchildren will not get a divorce? The divorce rate is 50 percent or greater. In fact it is 70 percent in some segments, particularly with the wealthy. Can you imagine entering a business with that fail rate?"

And he said the changing face of the world was not just in the divorce rate, but also the increased number of widows who hold a larger amount of the world's wealth.

Mr. Hampton pointed to the difficulties between parents and their children in the setting up of trusts, and said: "Warren Buffett (US millionaire who made his fortune on the stock markets) said 'I want to leave my children enough to do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing'."

And he said it is said that children and grandparents get along so well because they have a common enemy - the parents - and that this feuding was common among immediate generations who had different objectives.

He also said that while the average age of death is about 80 at the moment, in the next 100 years it will reach about 120, which has implications for trusts and the way they are set up. He said: "Even who is getting married may change."

And he said it was the job of the trust professionals in the audience to help those setting up the trust plan for generations to come to keep the family wealth alive and well, no matter what the future brings.