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1 Stephanie B. Casteel & Eric A. Manterfield, Estate Planning for Second Marriages [i] (2011)

handle is hein.ali/estpsm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Estate Planning for Second Marriages Stephanie B. Casteel Eric A. Manterfield Many married couples you represent will be in a second (or subsequent) marriage and will have chil- dren from a prior marriage. Although there are certainly exceptions to this general rule, it is still unusual for clients to adopt the children of their new spouse. For this reason, the couple frequently tells you about his children, her children and, perhaps, their children. Unlike the typical couple involved in a first marriage, couples involved in a second marriage frequently have substantial assets in their individual names alone. Although there certainly can and will be jointly held property, the existence of substantial assets in the sole name of each spouse may be significant. Joint property generally passes to the surviving joint owner at the death of the first spouse. Life insur- ance and retirement benefits will pass to the surviving spouse if he or she is named as the beneficiary. Many couples in a second marriage want their individually owned assets to pass to their children from a prior marriage, either when the first spouse dies or at the death of the surviving spouse. They may want the couples' assets to pass to the two families after the death of the surviving spouse. This trans- fer will not occur in accordance with the couples' wishes without careful estate planning Assets are generally in the sole name of the spouse who dies first will pass (in the absence of a will) to the surviving spouse and to the children from the prior marriage, and as the intestate heirs of the spouse who dies first. The children of the surviving spouse will not inherit unless they were adopted by the spouse who dies first. This may not be consistent with the intent of the decedent. Likewise, the surviving spouse would generally inherit only a limited portion of the assets that are in the sole name of the decedent at the time of death. That surviving spouse is then free to leave those as- sets to anyone he or she wants and there will be no assurance that those assets which pass intestate to the surviving spouse will end up with the children of the first spouse. Estate Planning for Second Marriages helps attorneys handle these blended family situations, in which each spouse has children from a prior marriage and each spouse wishes to protect his and her individual assets for their respective children from the prior marriage. The couple also hopes to pro- vide for the survivor, or if a divorce occurs, to provide for an orderly, predictable, and conflict-free dis- tribution of assets. Couples also hope to make use of the tax advantages available to married couples, such as filing joint income tax returns or making split gifts, in a mutually advantageous, systematic, fair, transparent, predictable, and orderly way.

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