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Estate Planning for Blended Families

 

What are blended families?

 

• Married couples in which one or both spouses have children from a prior marriage.

• Families with children who are in second or subsequent marriages and who have children from prior marriages.

• Families with children whose spouses have children from prior marriages.

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Blended families face unique estate planning challenges.Typically, individuals in blended families want to provide for their spouse as well as the children from the prior marriage. In some cases, they also want to provide for the children from their spouse’s prior marriage.

 

Two common estate-planning challenges that arise in  blended families are: (1) The potential for children to be disinherited, and (2)  delays in the children’s receipt of inheritance until after the death of their parent’s spouse. Without careful planning conflicts can arise.

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Estate Planning Tools and Techniques for Blended Families:

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• Prenuptial and Post-nuptial Agreements.

• Life Estates.

• Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts (QTIPs).

• Bloodline Trusts

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs).

• Family Limited Partnerships (FLP's) and  Limited Liability Companies (LLC's)