Estate Plans For Blended Families

At the canadian institute of financial planners 16th annual national conference in halifax on tuesday.

Estate plans for blended families.

Estate planning for blended families second marriage and step children require special planning to ensure your spouse and your children are protected. If it s deemed an existing estate plan doesn t provide adequate support. Estate planning for blended families. Families with children whose spouses have children from previous marriages.

4 tips on getting it right. Blended families can face complex estate planning challenges. Mike and carol brady were the iconic blended family each bringing 3 children into the marriage and raising them as one big happy family. Some blended families use reciprocal wills where the assets pass outright to the surviving spouse as their primary estate plan.

As the rates of divorce and remarriage climb those with recently blended families may be witness ing the emergence of troublesome estate planning issues. In today s world many first marriages end in divorce. That s why it s critical to maintain meaningful and ongoing communication among all concerned parties. Estate planning considerations for blended families by jennifer l.

As a result a tremendous number of blended families exist in the united states today a blended family is defined as a family that includes children from a previous marriage of one spouse or both. Financial planners need to work closely and continuously with blended families to ensure their often diverse and complex financial goals are met successfully said jacqueline power director of tax and estate planning with toronto based mackenzie financial corp. This trend has resulted in a large number of blended families with special. Issues can arise between spouses or between children and their spouses.

Estate planning for these individuals is much more complicated than it is for any other group. Typically individuals in blended families want to provide for the spouse as well as the children from the previous marriage. Drafting an estate plan by no means ensures a smoothly blended family. I wonder what their estate planning looked like.

How to estate plan with blended families.