Estate Planning Blended Families Ontario

Blended families are increasingly common and as an advisor you ll likely have clients with children from one or more prior relationships.

Estate planning blended families ontario.

This trend has resulted in a large number of blended families with special estate planning needs. In most blended family situations each partner wants to ensure that when they die their children as well as their new love will be treated fairly and will receive as much financial support as possible. Premarital and marital agreements. Both her and her new spouse were widowed and had adult children.

I wonder what their estate planning looked like. Unfortunately if proper planning is not undertaken what often occurs in the blended family context is that one branch of the family receives the entire estate and the other branch of the family receives nothing. So bringing two entire families together under one roof can create additional challenges. Depending on a family s situation and needs an estate planning attorney can help select and execute one of the following strategies.

Estate planning for blended families second marriage estate planning for blended families second marriage and step children require special planning to ensure your spouse and your children are protected. Successful blended family estate planning is a matter of setting and communicating goals learning the available legal strategies implement ing the chosen documents and setting appropriate expec tations for the client. A real example of a blended family a relative of mine remarried in her 50s. These are a few common scenarios.

Estate planning for blended families is a form of asset protection. If you follow some simple steps you can come up with a plan that meets everyone s needs. Assume two spouses are in a second marriage and each have children from a prior marriage. If this situation describes your family you can do some careful estate planning to address your family s special needs.

Estate planning for blended familiescan be a particular challenge for inexperienced amateurs and even professionals because the standard clauses of a will may have unintended consequences. These agreements should address.