Blended Families and the Importance of Estate Planning
Blended Families add an additional level of complexity to Estate Planning. How will children from previous marriages be treated financially, are their children from the subsequent marriage, how would you like to provide for your spouse after you are gone? Each family has their own challenges and opportunities for solutions. The key is to have a plan ahead of time.
This is a great article exploring some of the difficult issues surrounding blended families especially as it relates to estate planning. The good news is that you CAN solve these issues. The bad news is that they don’t solve themselves. You have to be proactive. As the article points out, lack of planning can be a breeding ground for litigation between step-parents and their step-children or result in unintentional disinheritance all together.