In estate planning for a nuclear family, typically each spouse leaves their assets to the surviving spouse, with the understanding that these assets will pass to their children after the death of the surviving spouse.
It’s important that estate planning for blended families makes sure that assets pass to beneficiaries as desired, regardless of which spouse dies first. The key to trying to avoid these disputes is a well-thought-out estate plan that honors the surviving spouse and provides an inheritance that’s protected for the deceased’s own children.
Types of Blended Families
According to the article “In blended families, estate planning can have unintended issues” from The News-Enterprise, there are two types of blended families:
- Long-term blended family: When children were brought up by the parents and stepparents, a natural family relationship occurs between stepparents and their stepchildren.
- Blended family with adult children: The spouses married after their separate children were already adults, the children don’t live in the parent’s home, and they have their own lives and families. In this instance, the spouse is seen as the parent’s spouse rather than as the child’s stepparent.
Issues of Inheritance
Estate planning for blended families involves strategic thinking. Let’s say this is the second marriage for both Joe and Linda and they each bring young children to the marriage. What happens if Joe passes away and he leaves all his assets to Linda? Or what if Joe didn’t leave any will? The result could be that Joe’s children might end up not receiving any inheritance from Joe’s estate.
How could Joe’s children be disinherited?
- Linda might remarry and give Joe’s assets to her new spouse.
- Linda might remove Joe’s children from her will. This isn’t illegal as stepparents have no obligation to provide for their stepchildren.
Most people don’t intend to disinherit their own children or their stepchildren. However, failing to do the proper estate planning—having a will, setting up trusts, etc.—or not revising their estate plan when they remarry could cause a child not to receive the inheritance the deceased parent wanted to provide.
Other Factors To Consider
There are several topics that the parents of a blended family need to think about including:
- Should family assets be combined or segregated?
- To whom does each parent wish to leave their assets upon their death?
- If you want to leave some assets to your own children at death, will your surviving spouse have enough assets to live on?
- If you want to designate a trustee, how do you do that so everyone in the family feels comfortable?
Contact us today at (619) 765-9307 or send an email to mkarr@maheritagelawcenter.com to schedule a confidential, no-cost consultation to start doing estate planning for your blended family.
