I'm in a second marriage...

I’m in a second marriage…. 

Second marriages often pose additional estate planning issues, particularly if there are kids on both sides.  For instance -

    ·      Does either spouse wish to keep their individual, pre-marital estate separate from their marital estate?

    ·      Does either spouse wish to acquire assets during the marriage and hold those assets in their separate name (or at least create/reserve the argument that they are separate)?

    ·      Do both spouses wish to own all, or some, assets jointly?  If so, -

            ·      Does the spouse who passes first want to ‘reach out from the grave with the power of the dead hand’, so to speak, and exert some control over the surviving spouse, insofar as the joint estate assets go?

            ·      Or, should the surviving spouse maintain and enjoy absolute control over the joint estate, such that he/she is free to do with those assets as he/she sees fit?

            ·      More particularly, should the surviving spouse be able to change up the estate plan (as it pertains to the joint estate), even in a way that diminishes what the deceased spouse’s children will inherit (from the joint estate) upon the surviving spouse passing?

Blended families are just one more reason to get your estate planning in order.