When you are divorced as a parent, and you decide to get remarried, a lot of things are probably going to go through your mind from an estate planning perspective. You certainly have to revise your existing inheritance plan, and you may have questions about the ideal way to provide for everyone that you love.
If you are ever in this position, you will indeed have a lot on your plate. Without question, you want to protect your children come what may, but you should also consider your own financial well-being. This may not be a very romantic thing to convey, but most second marriages fail, and third marriages fail with even higher frequency.
You probably won’t think that you will be one of the statistics when you get remarried, but the people who comprise the statistics probably felt the same way. A prenuptial agreement can be an option under these circumstances.
QTIP Trusts
When it comes to protecting the interests of your children, you could potentially create a qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust. This type of trust can provide you with the best of both worlds.
To implement this inheritance planning strategy, you fund the trust, and your spouse would be the first beneficiary. Your children would be the final beneficiaries.
If you do in fact pass away first, your spouse could continue to utilize real property that is contained within the trust. He or she could also receive distributions from the trust’s earnings throughout the rest of his or her life.
You would be certain that your spouse would be secure for life, but your surviving spouse would have no ability to change the beneficiary designations. After the death of your spouse, your children would assume ownership of the assets in the trust.
A qualified terminable interest property trust can provide a solution in many instances if you want to make sure that you take care of your new spouse as you simultaneously protect the inheritances that you want to leave to your children.
New Seminar Schedule
We have just completed the final seminars that we will be conducting during the 2015 calendar year, and we have released the schedule for January of next year.
These inheritance planning seminars are absolutely free to attend, and you will obtain a great deal of eye-opening information if you attend the information session that fits into your schedule. We have morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, so you can certainly find a seminar that is right for you.
The seminars are free to attend, but space fills up fast, so we ask that you register in advance. You can click the following link to see the schedule: January Inheritance Planning Seminars.
Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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