{"id":4300,"date":"2016-08-09T06:03:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T06:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/collitonlaw.com\/?p=2113"},"modified":"2021-11-15T23:16:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T04:16:12","slug":"every-second-marriage-needs-estate-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collitonlaw.com\/every-second-marriage-needs-estate-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Second Marriage Needs An Estate Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you have followed my columns, you know that I rarely use the expressions \u201calways\u201d or \u201cnever.\u201d\u00a0 My usual expression is \u201cit depends.\u201d\u00a0 However, I might break that rule in one circumstance and that is regarding second <em>(or subsequent)<\/em> marriages and the need for an estate plan instead of just Wills.\u00a0 Wills affect only probate assets, those titled in your own name, not jointly titled, and have no beneficiary designation.\u00a0 An estate plan looks at the whole picture and considers who will receive what on your passing regardless how the assets are titled now.\u00a0 The lawyers of\u00a0helps not only with estate plan which considers Wills but also makes sure that joint titling, transfer on death and beneficiary designations are consistent with the results you want on your passing.<\/p>\n<p>For second marriages, I might even go so far as to say that every second marriage needs an estate plan.\u00a0 Beginning with those least affected I will explain why.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You were married before.\u00a0 You have no children by your prior marriage or your current marriage.\u00a0 Your assets are jointly titled with your spouse and you want your spouse to get everything.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 If you are in this situation, you are the least affected by what I am going to say but you and your spouse should still consider an estate plan. If you don&#8217;t know whom to contact , <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hilbrich.com\/crown-point-estate-planning\/\">estate planning law firm, Hilbrich Law Firm<\/a> can help you with your estate plan.\u00a0 You and your spouse could have different ideas regarding who you want to inherit if you both pass away.\u00a0 Your spouse might want everything on the death of the second of you to go to a favored charity or to her or his family.\u00a0 You might want your favored charities or your brothers, sisters or parents to share.\u00a0 This should be discussed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You were married before. You and\/or your current spouse had children by a prior marriage and the children are grown.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is a classic situation.\u00a0 All assets including the house might be titled jointly with your current spouse and your current spouse is likely named as beneficiary of your life insurance and 401(k) or IRA.\u00a0 The question is do you or your spouse want to reserve some assets or accounts for children from a prior marriage and, if so, how much?\u00a0 Sometimes a spouse continues to live in the house during her or his lifetime keeping a \u201clife estate\u201d in the house and the children by a prior marriage receive the house on the death of the second spouse.\u00a0 Sometimes children receive something on the death of their parent or are secondary beneficiaries meaning they inherit if your spouse dies first.\u00a0 Sometimes everything goes to the surviving spouse and nothing to the children.\u00a0 Again, this needs to be discussed.\u00a0 Merely naming your children as beneficiaries in your Will does not do it.\u00a0 If everything is joint and nothing passes by Will, they still do not inherit. The <a href=\"https:\/\/preston-estate-planning-san-diego-ca.business.site\/\">elder law attorneys located in San Diego area<\/a> can help sort out property issues and more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You were married before.\u00a0 You and\/or your current spouse had children by a prior marriage and the children are minors.<\/strong>\u00a0 You might think that because the children are minors and might even still be living in your house and because you are young, you have everything under control.\u00a0 Not necessarily true. \u00a0\u00a0If you die while the children are still minors you might not be able to prevent your former spouse from having custody but you can provide in your Will for another Trustee to handle an inheritance for your children.\u00a0 That Trustee could be your current spouse, your parents, a brother, sister or other relative.\u00a0 Again, these things need to be discussed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Finally, planning during your lifetime.\u00a0<\/strong> While not an estate planning issue, this does affect assets during your lifetime, including your businesses.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"https:\/\/nc-planning-estate-planning-attorney-raleigh.business.site\/\">business attorneys based in Raleigh area<\/a> , if you are currently married and have children by a prior marriage, long term care affects both your spouse and your children.\u00a0 There are some protections built into the Medicaid rules to protect spouses, but, with rare exception, no such provisions adult children.\u00a0 The Medicaid exceptions are where an adult child is disabled or has been living with you in your house and caring for you for more than two years.\u00a0 However, other options both for spouses and children are often available with planning even during the Medicaid five year lookback period. For this, you would need to seek help and advice from an elder law attorney well in advance while there are still assets to consider.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have followed my columns, you know that I rarely use the expressions \u201calways\u201d or \u201cnever.\u201d\u00a0 My usual expression is \u201cit depends.\u201d\u00a0 However, I might break that rule in one circumstance and that is regarding second (or subsequent) marriages and the need for an estate plan instead of just Wills.\u00a0 Wills affect only probate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[107,197,219,94],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - 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