A second marriage can bring a wonderful new chapter—and a more complicated estate planning picture.
You may want to make sure your spouse is financially secure if something happens to you while also preserving an inheritance for your children. You may own property from before the marriage, have children from different relationships, maintain separate finances, or have very different levels of wealth.
Without thoughtful planning, these competing priorities can create unintended consequences.
For couples entering a second marriage, estate planning is an opportunity to clearly define what you want, protect the people you love, and reduce the possibility of uncertainty or conflict in the future. For couples entering a second marriage, an Everett, WA estate planning lawyer can help create a plan that protects both the surviving spouse and children from previous relationships.
Why Estate Planning Is Especially Important in a Second Marriage
Estate planning in a first marriage can sometimes be relatively straightforward: everything passes to the surviving spouse, and after the second spouse dies, the remaining assets pass to the children.
In a second marriage, that approach may not accomplish what you intend.
For example, you may want to:
- Provide your spouse with financial security;
- Preserve certain assets for your children;
- Keep inherited or family property within your family;
- Protect assets you accumulated before the marriage;
- Provide differently for children based on their circumstances; or
- Clearly distinguish between separate and community property.
These goals are not mutually exclusive. With proper planning, an estate plan can provide for a surviving spouse while also protecting an intended inheritance for other beneficiaries.
Do Not Assume Your Will Is Enough
One common approach is to leave everything to a surviving spouse with the expectation that the spouse will eventually leave those assets to your children.
The problem is that circumstances can change.
Once assets pass outright to your spouse, those assets generally become theirs to manage. Your spouse may later change their estate plan, remarry, spend the assets, make gifts, or experience financial circumstances that affect what ultimately remains.
Even when everyone has the best intentions today, there is no guarantee that your original wishes will be carried out decades later.
A Trust can provide greater certainty.
Using a Trust to Provide for Your Spouse and Protect Your Children
Trust planning can allow you to accomplish two goals at the same time: supporting your surviving spouse and preserving assets for your chosen beneficiaries.
For example, an estate plan may create a Trust that allows your surviving spouse to benefit from certain assets during their lifetime while directing the remaining property to your children after your spouse passes away.
Depending on how the Trust is structured, your spouse may be able to receive income or distributions for specified needs without receiving unrestricted ownership of the underlying assets.
This approach can provide financial security for your spouse while giving you greater control over where the remaining assets ultimately go.
Consider Property You Owned Before the Marriage
Washington is a community property state, but that does not mean everything a married couple owns is automatically community property.
Property owned before marriage, as well as certain gifts and inheritances, may be separate property.
For couples entering a second marriage, identifying separate property can be particularly important.
You may have:
- A home purchased before the marriage;
- Investment or retirement accounts accumulated previously;
- An inheritance from your parents;
- A family business;
- Vacation property; or
- Other assets you want to preserve for particular beneficiaries.
How these assets are titled, managed, and incorporated into your estate plan can affect what happens to them after your death.
Think Carefully About the Family Home
The home is often one of the most difficult assets to plan for in a second marriage.
You may want your surviving spouse to be able to remain in the home while also wanting your children to ultimately inherit the property or its value.
Simply leaving the home outright to one person may not accomplish both goals.
Trust planning can potentially create a structure that allows a surviving spouse to use or live in the property while establishing what should happen to it later.
Your plan can also address practical questions such as who is responsible for taxes, insurance, maintenance, and major repairs.
Thinking through these details in advance can prevent significant disagreements later.
Review Your Beneficiary Designations
Your Will and Trust are only part of your estate plan.
Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain financial accounts generally pass according to beneficiary designations.
If those designations have not been updated after a previous marriage or other major life changes, the results may be very different from what you intend.
After marrying again, review beneficiary designations on:
- 401(k)s and other employer retirement plans;
- Traditional and Roth IRAs;
- Life insurance policies;
- Payable-on-death accounts;
- Transfer-on-death accounts; and
- Other assets that pass by beneficiary designation.
These designations should be coordinated with your overall estate plan.
Choose Your Fiduciaries Carefully
Second marriages can also make the selection of a Trustee or Personal Representative more complicated.
Naming your spouse may seem natural. Naming an adult child may seem equally natural.
But if your spouse and children have competing financial interests, placing one of them in control of the other’s inheritance can create tension.
Ask yourself whether the person you are considering can:
- Remain impartial;
- Follow the terms of your estate plan;
- Communicate effectively with all beneficiaries;
- Keep accurate financial records; and
- Make difficult decisions when necessary.
In some circumstances, an independent or professional Trustee may be worth considering.
Consider a Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreement
Estate planning and marital agreements can work together.
A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement may clarify each spouse’s rights and expectations regarding separate property, community property, support, and inheritance.
The estate planning documents can then be structured consistently with those agreements.
This can be particularly important when one or both spouses enter the marriage with significant assets, children, business interests, or property they want to preserve.
Talk About the Plan Together
Money and inheritance can be difficult topics to discuss, particularly when children and prior relationships are involved.
But avoiding the conversation does not make the underlying issues disappear.
When appropriate, discussing your estate planning goals with your spouse can help both of you understand what the plan is designed to accomplish.
For example, providing for your spouse while preserving certain assets for your children does not mean you value one relationship more than another. It means you are intentionally planning for multiple people who are important to you.
Clear planning—and, when appropriate, clear communication—can help reduce misunderstandings later.
Review Your Plan as Your Marriage Evolves
Your estate plan should change as your life changes.
Consider reviewing your plan when:
- You get married;
- You purchase or sell a home;
- Your assets significantly increase or decrease;
- Children become adults;
- You receive an inheritance;
- A beneficiary or fiduciary passes away;
- Family relationships change; or
- You move to another state.
A plan created at the beginning of a second marriage may need to look very different ten or twenty years later.
Protecting Your Spouse Does Not Have to Mean Disinheriting Your Children
Estate planning for a second marriage does not have to be an either-or decision.
With thoughtful planning, you can provide financial security for your spouse, preserve assets for your children and other beneficiaries, and create clear instructions for the people responsible for carrying out your wishes.
The most important step is not leaving those decisions to assumptions.
At Eastside Estate Planning, we help individuals and families throughout Bellevue, Kirkland, and the greater Seattle area create comprehensive estate plans that reflect their values, priorities, and wishes.
If you are married for a second time or preparing to remarry, thoughtful estate planning can help you protect your spouse, your children, and the legacy you have worked to build.
Contact us today to schedule your 15-minute consultation.
