Why Estate Planning Is Crucial When You Have Children From A Previous Relationship

[Mary] unfortunately dies unexpectedly from a brief illness. Mary's children are devastated by their mother's death and further demoralized to learn that they inherited absolutely nothing from her estate. .[Michael] inherited everything because of how they owned their assets as a married couple. Upon Michael's death, his and Mary's assets pass to his children solely.

As a general rule, the way your assets are titled will determine how they pass upon your death. Often married peo' pie own things jointly, as Mary and Michael in our example. When one spouse dies, automatically all of the assets that they own pass automatically to the other spouse. This result may work perfectly fine for many couples, but when there are children from a previous relationship involved, this may not be the ideal situation because the children of the. spouse who dies first may very well be cut out of the inheritance of their parent, while the children of the spouse who dies last may very well inherit everything. FULL TEXT

One of the most common fears that I have heard from clients that come into my office is that upon their death, their children from a previous relationship will be cut out of their inheritance and that their estate will pass to the client's spouse and the spouse's children. This is a very real fear to be concerned about, because it happens all the time when no estate planning has been done. Lets look at an example of how this happens:

Mary has two children from a previous relationship. She owns a small home, car and some savings. She finds and falls in love with Michael who is the love of her life. Michael has two children of his own from a past relationship. As a married couple, they buy a house and save money together. They own everything together.

Additionally, they take out life insurance on each other and make the other the primary beneficiary.

Mary unfortunately dies unexpectedly from a brief illness. Mary's children are devastated by their mother's death and further demoralized to learn that they inherited absolutely nothing from her estate. .Michael inherited everything because of how they owned their assets as a married couple. Upon Michael's death, his and Mary's assets pass to his children solely.

Although Mary loved her husband Michael, it was certainly not her intention that she cut ner own children out of her inheritance while Michael and eventually his children inherited everything. The reason this happened is that Mary did not do any estate planning to avoid this situation.

As a general rule, the way your assets are titled will determine how they pass upon your death. Often married peo' pie own things jointly, as Mary and Michael in our example. When one spouse dies, automatically all of the assets that they own pass automatically to the other spouse. This result may work perfectly fine for many couples, but when there are children from a previous relationship involved, this may not be the ideal situation because the children of the. spouse who dies first may very well be cut out of the inheritance of their parent, while the children of the spouse who dies last may very well inherit everything.

When people marry and have children from a previous relationship, it is crucial that they make sure that they have put planning in place to ensure that their children will receive an inheritance from their estate in the event of their death. Whether they use a will, trust, beneficiary designations, titling of assets or other methods to accomplish this, will depend upon tneir individual situation and goals.

Estate planning allows couples with children from previous relationships to plan not only for their spouse, but for their children as well. When no planning is done, and children are unintentionally cut out of their parent's estate due to lack of planning, tension and resentment can often result between the children and their stepparent. Imagine the strain on the relationship between MaiVs children and Michael and his children in our example. Needless to say, it was not pretty.

When remarrying it is critical to take a little time to properly put-things in place through tools Juke wills, trusts, beneficiary designations and titling of assets. This can often determine whether children will or will not inherit from their parent's estate.

Do you have a legal question for Attorney Keisha N. Harris? Please email your question to knh@knharrislaw.com or by mail to 101 N.E. Third Avenue, Suite 1500, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.