Second Marriages – A Critical Time for Estate Planning

Second Marriages – A Critical Time for Estate Planning

 A second marriage when there are children from a first marriage can unintentionally disinherit those children.

 A recent “cocktail party” question illustrates the unfortunate possibilities.

 A 61 year old man recently dies leaving a wife and several adult children from a previous marriage.  The man had no estate plan.  Also, he and his second wife were in the process of divorce.  But when he died, the divorce was not final so he was still legally married to his second wife.

 With no estate plan, the man’s estate would go ½ to his wife that he had not yet divorced and ½ to his children. 

 If this man had been asked week before he died if it was his intention to leave ½ of his estate to the woman he was in the midst of divorcing how likely is it that he would have answered “No.” (The “bereaved widow” brought her boyfriend to his wake.)

The story could have been worse.  The man could have put most of his assets into joint tenancy with his second wife after he married her.  Then when he died his wife would have received all those assets.  There would not have been a 50-50 split of those joint tenancy assets with his children.

 Major life changes are good time to prepare or revise an estate plan.  Second marriages are certainly one of them.

 

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