Family Situations

Some situations require special planning.

• Married couples with young children. Married couples with young children should know that upon both parents’ deaths, their children receive their inheritance outright, no strings attached at age eighteen. Most children at that age are barely able to fend for themselves, much less be able to tell when a confidante is trying to separate them from their inheritance. The answer to this is simple and straightforward. Call me.
• Couples living together but not married. Couples living together but not married have little in the way of law to make sure the partner gets what the deceased or incapacitated partner wants him/her to have. You may virtually duplicate married couple’s rights. You have to take the initiative however. Wills and trusts may allow for the unmarried partner to control money in the event of your mental incapacity or death. Health care documents will enable your partner to make your health care decisions. Don’t wait until the government sees fit to do it your way. It may never happen. Take the initiative and make sure you get what you want. Call me for an appointment.
• Divorced. Divorced individuals do not ordinarily want the ex?spouse to obtain their assets. Our office will provide invaluable service in checking your assets and setting up your estate plan to avoid this problem.
• Single people. Single individuals often have special people and special relations in their lives with loved ones, charities or organizations. Making sure they are not forgotten is important.
• Single parent families. May have a divorce in the background. Upon your death, the surviving ex?spouse may have access to the assets you leave to your child. Money or assets left to your children and inappropriately wasted by an ex?spouse creates a double whammy; the deceased parent didn’t care enough to protect the assets left to his/her children, and the wasting parent cared so little about his or her children that he/she took your children’s money for him/herself. Children are not generally able to emotionally understand why “mom” then “dad” would both “do this to me.” The best way to make sure your ex?spouse does not get access to those assets is to leave them to a trustee with legal instructions on how to apply the money for your child’s benefit.
• Same sex couples. Same sex couples have little in the way of law to make sure the partner gets what the deceased or incapacitated partner wants him/her to have. Same sex couples may however virtually duplicate married couple’s rights. You have to take the initiative however. Wills and trusts may allow for the same sex partner to control money in the event of your mental incapacity or death. Health care documents will enable your partner to make your health care decisions. Don’t wait until the government sees fit to do it your way. It may never happen. Take the initiative and make sure you get what you want. Call me for an appointment.
• Remarried. Remarriage is a particularly troublesome area of relationships in terms of estate planning. Careful, experienced planning is required. Take this scenario. Husband and wife divorce leaving two children. Husband remarries. New wife has two children. To start the new marriage a new house is bought and both marital partners take title. Husband in the new marriage dies. The house goes to new wife. New wife dies, house goes to new wife’s children. What happened to the remarried husband’s children? They got nothing, and probably can’t do anything about it.
• No previously married person with children from a former relationship should become remarried without calling me for an appointment to learn how to protect their children from the first relationship. This is a personal and financial disaster for the unintentionally disinherited child. Again they ask why would dad (mom) do this to me.