Second marriages present unique challenges when developing an estate plan. In a non-blended family, it’s common for a person to leave everything to a spouse and when the spouse dies, it goes to the children.

With blended families, it may not be so simple as people are faced with a balancing act, they want to provide for their spouse, but also provide for their children from a prior relationship.

What if the new spouse:Is younger?Uses all of the money?Remarries?Changes the beneficiaries?

Those children may not receive their inheritance for many years or maybe not at all.

When a surviving spouse is not the parent of the deceased’s children, tying them together through a traditional estate plan may be problematic.

Through careful planning, you can provide for your spouse and your children at the same time, while avoiding conflict between them.

Read more about planning for your blended family in Chapter 6 of our Estate Planning Guide.