Example: John and Diane have been married for over 30 years. They have no children together, but each of them has two children from prior marriages. In their Wills, they provide for each other first and then leave the assets equally to all four children. What they don’t consider when drafting their Wills is that the survivor of the two of them can always change the Will to leave everything to only that survivor’s children.

In this situation, a Trust can help protect children from a prior marriage. One option is for John and Diane to establish separate Trusts. They can, of course, do a mutual Trust being careful to list their individual assets on a different property schedule. John and Diane can also include special provisions for sub-Trust funding on the death of the first spouse.

Second marriage estate planning can be complicated, but it is doable.

For more Estate Planning tips, register for my next webinar using the link below.

Register for Webinar