Strategies to Help Grandchildren Now, Not Later.

MANY grandparents want to provide a financial cushion for their grandchildren in the future. Bobbie Abrams, 76, has a more pressing concern: helping them with current expenses. Ms. Abrams, whose grandparents were Russian immigrants who founded the Hudson Pulp and Paper Corporation, has six grandchildren, ages 12 to 27. After one of her sons died of cancer 19 years ago, leaving two young children, and her daughter, Carolyn Abrams-Dyer, was suddenly widowed in 1997 while pregnant with her third child, Ms. Abrams used family money to pay for private school, college and graduate school tuition, orthodontia, summer camp and more. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]