Anyone with children or modest assets should seriously
consider some minimal estate planning, but the increasing number of blended
families underscores the need for proper estate planning.
Blended families can involve children from a prior marriage
as well as joint children, sometimes joking referred to as “his, hers and
theirs.” And blended families involve
both younger and older couples, and nearly everyone in between.
When the new spouse is significantly younger, this sometimes
means that the older spouse’s children are close in age to the younger. These relationships can cause more than
friction between the step-parent and step-children.
Most parents want to ensure that their assets will pass to
their children, not their stepchildren. However,
absent good estate planning, there is no guarantee that their children will
inherit their assets. In fact, if the
couple creates common “I love you” wills such that their assets pass to the survivor
of them, there is a significant likelihood their children will be totally
disinherited.
This is because all of their assets will pass to the
surviving spouse to do with as he or she pleases. More often than not this
means excluding the stepchildren, who then receive nothing.
The fact that Americans are living longer, and sometimes
remarrying much later in life, means that blended family issues come into play
there too. A recent USA Today article, titled With more blended families, estate planning gets ugly, highlights some of these issues.
(The full article is available online at www.usatoday.com/news/parenting-family/story/2012-03-13/With-more-blended-families-estate-planning-gets-ugly/53516094/1?csp=34news.)
As this article states, “[a]dd the gaping generational
divide between Depression-era parents, who valued frugality above all else, and
their Baby Boomer children, who relish self-reward, and the dynamics can be
explosive.”
Thus, baby boomer children expecting an inheritance may have
to wait much longer than expected. But perhaps more difficult, who should pay
for the cost of the surviving spouse’s care? Should the stepchildren be forced
to use their inheritance to pay for an aging step-parent’s care, particularly
after only a short-term marriage? Or
should this burden fall on the children?
There is no one right answer here, but these questions
epitomize the many questions that arise with blended families. These questions should
be answered with the help of counsel and proper planning.
Our estate planning law firm serves clients in California, and would be happy to guide you in the right direction.
