Estate Planning for Blended Families 

Estate planning for blended families is generally more complex than it is for non-blended families. With multiple bloodlines and familial ties often come differing goals and the potential that one side of the family ends up disinherited—even if an estate plan is created and followed.  To ensure that each family group is treated the way you as the planners intend, it is important to craft an estate plan that accounts for the challenges and problems unique to blended families, and that eliminates, or at least tempers, them.  

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Here are some important components of such an estate plan: 

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• Open Communication: Before you begin the formal estate planning process, it's crucial to have open and honest discussions with your spouse or partner about your estate planning goals to ensure you are both on the same page.  This can help avoid misunderstandings and conflicts later on. 

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• Specialized Trusts: Blended family situations often call for trust provisions and arrangements that are specifically tailored to address blended family concerns, such as how to protect each spouse’s descendants from intentional or accidental disinheritance, or how to provide for a surviving spouse while still preserving assets for descendants.  These trusts can also accomplish other common trust purposes, such as controlling the distribution of assets, providing for someone with special needs, avoiding guardianship, or providing asset protection to beneficiaries. 

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• Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreements: Although this can be a sensitive and somewhat awkward subject, you and your spouse or partner may want to discuss creating a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement to outline how assets and debts will be divided in case of divorce or death.  These agreements can help protect the interests of both spouses and can clarify financial expectations and agreements. 

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• Blended Family Considerations: Keep in mind the unique dynamics of blended families. Sometimes blended-family estate planning is undertaken as a couple, sometimes it’s done individually, and sometimes it’s a combination of the two.  You may want to provide for your biological children while also ensuring your spouse or partner is taken care of, and if planning is done as a couple, you may want to ensure that both sets of descendants are protected from changes to the estate plan after the death of the first spouse.  The right type of trust(s) can be particularly useful in these situations. 

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• Regular Review and Updates: Life circumstances can change, so it's important to review your estate plan regularly and update it as necessary.  This includes considering the effect of changes in family situations, finances and other life circumstances, and laws that affect estate plans. 

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Estate planning can be challenging when you have a blended family, and it’s important to make sure it is done correctly.  But with open communication, sound professional guidance, and careful planning, an estate plan can be created that provides for the well-being of each family member, and not just the ones who get lucky.