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23 05 2007

Second Marriages and Estate Planning

Posted by: Eric Hundin in , Estates, Wills, Trusts, Career Information, Blog Carnival

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You have gotten remarried and are thinking of the original Estate plan you drew up. Will it cover this new extension of your family? Will you find that either your first wife and/or kids will inherit all of it, leaving your new wife and possibly new child without anything? Or what if your new wife wants nothing to do with your assets and demands that papers are drawn up stating that whats hers remains that way and you keep whats yours? If any of these scenarios are true, you need to look into adding onto or changing your Estate plan.

In the traditional Estate plan, you and your spouse named each other the beneficiaries. However, now you have a whole new set of people to consider, and what if your spouse marries someone else? Do you want him to inherit your home and properties? Since the answer is probably no, we need to look at what you have to do to keep all of your loved ones safe. If you and your first spouse have children, you need to look into the Family trusts and talk to each other about adding maybe a new child in, or leaving it closed to any changes at all. You will definitely want a lawyer for this, so before you go over to your exs place, call your attorney first.

Next you want to look into a Qualified Terminable Interest in Property (QTIP) trust. This is where assets are left to surviving spouse at the time of your death. You can determine if it is your current one or ex. You can also set it up to where your children receive whatever assets you have and then neither of your spouses can alter or change it.

If you leave them in the Qualified Terminable Interest in Property (QTIP) trust, they qualify for a deduction at the time of death. It breaks down like this. The husband leaves the Family Trust to his wife followed by his children. Then the wife can leave her portion to her own children.

You need to look at this from not a personal level but a business one. You and your spouse, current or otherwise, need to sit down and decide who gets what and why. You might also want to agree to simply leave it all to the children since they are the ones it will eventually go to. However, make sure that your loved one is provided for, you do not want a disgruntled child outing your second wife after you pass on by literally throwing her out on the street.

The same goes for the first wife as well. Your children together or children with your second wife may not care for the first wife and decide to boot her out.

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At least redirecting mail in advance would be one thing off your mind.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 1:16 pm and is filed under , Estates, Wills, Trusts, Career Information, Blog Carnival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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