The Cold, Hard Truth About Planning For Blended Families – Bella Vista Estate Planning Lawyer
The blended family has a set of unique problems when it comes to their estate planning.
How should the assets be divided up and who should get what? Who should be on the Durable Power of Attorney? What about healthcare proxies?
The Situation
Dad passed away last year and left the vast majority of his property to Step-mom by operation of law after 20+ years of marriage. That is, no Will or Trust required. When Step-mom passed, she left everything of hers (and what was his) to only her children. Dad trusted Step-mom to do the right thing. But, she didn’t.
This story shows the problem of blended families. While what she did is not right, it is not illegal. Step-mom was given the property by operation of law. It was hers to decide what to do with. Dad didn’t have any say in the matter. Step-mom made sure her children were well taken care of while cutting her step-children out completely.
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Even if Step-mom hadn’t created a Trust in her last days, leaving everything to only her children, the results would have been the same. Under Arkansas law, without a Will or Trust, your property will be divided between only your biological and adopted children. Since Step-mom had not adopted Dad’s children, they would have been left out.
How can you stop this from happening?
In no order of importance, here are three things you can do to plan for a blended family:
- Adopt the people. In Arkansas, adopted children are treated the same as biological children when it comes to inheritance. And, in Arkansas, you can adopt people of any age. At least this way they would all get an equal share of the property.
- Create a Trust (or Trusts) and spell out exactly how the property is to be divided up. If you want to leave what was hers to her children and what was his to his children, a Trust is the way to go.
- Create a Last Will and Testament and give the property to the children in the proportions you choose. But, a Last Will and Testament still has to go through the court process of probate and is easier to challenge than a Trust.