<human>: Apologies for the long post: I'm looking for a little advice here, regarding any possible risk being associated with a trust. I'm particularly concerned with anything that might open us up to being responsible for debt acquired by the in-laws. 

Background: Both 29, no debts other than a modest mortgage, no kids, both work full time.
 The in-laws recently inherited a large sum of money when one of their last remaining parents passed away earlier this year. Both of the in-laws have severe health problems, and were concerned about passing any assets to their three children if something were to happen to them. They decided to open a trust with a financial company I won't name and add their three children as members of the trust.

My wife brought home some paperwork to fill out at the request of Merrill lynch asking for her demographic information (SSN, name, etc).   I wasn't too concerned about that, as it seemed to be standard beneficiary stuff. However, they also wanted a W9 filled out, as well as information about my SSN and our average household income. This seemed strange to me, but may be typical when being added to a trust.

 

My Concerns: 

My in-laws are absolutely terrible with money. I found out that before they could even access the inheritance money, they borrowed a significant amount against it that investment account because they couldn't actually withdraw the money until the probate / death process was complete. That may be normal, but that's a huge red flag to me.

If this is truly a trust (my wife is trying to contact the company to get specific details), is there any financial risk of being added to a trust or is the relationship simply a beneficiary one with additional tax benefits?

Condense the text into a few key points
<bot>: In-laws asked wife to sign trust paperwork. I'm skeptical we'll be on the hook for something since in-laws are awful with money.