Three Considerations for Remarriage and Estate Planning in the New Year
Have you remarried or are you planning to remarry in the New Year? If so, you should be aware that remarriage can have a significant impact on your estate plan. Now can be a great time to review your estate plan to make sure it best reflects your current life status, including your remarriage.
Estate Planning Considerations After Remarriage
When reviewing your estate plan, or putting a new estate plan in place, you may want to consider these three things:
- Protecting your current spouse. Review your estate plans to make sure that your will and other estate planning documents properly include your current spouse. This will help you avoid unintentionally disinheriting your new spouse. It can also help ensure that your current spouse inherits the assets you want him or her to inherit. A simple oversight, such as assuming that your new spouse will automatically inherit certain assets, the marital home, for example, may put him or her in danger of losing that asset upon your death.
- Protecting your estate from your former spouse. Divorce may mean that your former spouse automatically loses access to things he or she may otherwise have been entitled to under your estate plan. In some cases, however, you will need to make updates to your estate plan to ensure that this actually occurs. Beneficiary designations on items, such as retirement accounts and life insurance plans, in particular, can be very important to update so that the proceeds from these accounts do not inadvertently pass to your former spouse.
- Protecting your children from your previous marriage. Assumptions can be a tricky business and end up doing a great deal of unintentional harm. For instance, some may assume or have reached some sort of understanding with a current spouse that he or she will provide for your children from a previous marriage in the event that you pass away. Unfortunately, however, this needlessly exposes your children to financial risk. Instead, you may wish to consider revising your estate plan in a way that specifically provides for your children. For instance, putting a revocable trust in place is a popular option, in that it is flexible in allowing a person a tool to provide for the financial needs of both a spouse and children.
Contact The Law Offices of Clifford M. Cohen Today!
For more information on how to make sure your estate plan most effectively serves you and your loved ones, please call the Law Offices of Clifford M. Cohen at (202) 895-2799 to schedule a time to meet.
