Today, roughly one in four divorces involves those over 50, a trend that has garnered its own nickname: “Gray divorce.”
The divorce rates for this demographic have doubled in the past 30 years and tripled for those over 65, according to a study.
And those who do get remarried bring children from previous marriages into the new union, increasing the number of blended families. Regardless of age or marital status, all adults over age 18 should have some basic estate planning, but for those with blended families, estate planning is particularly vital.
Blended families who have yet to create a plan, or fail to update their existing plan following remarriage, are putting themselves at major risk for accidentally disinheriting their loved ones.
Such planning omissions can have terrible unintended consequences.
Here are two different hypothetical scenarios to show how a failure to update your estate plan after a remarriage has the potential for devastating consequences and how these negative outcomes can be avoided by updating your estate plan after you remarry.
Scenario 1: Accidentally disinheriting your children from a previous marriage Bill has two adult children, Harry and Alex, from a prior marriage. He marries Melissa, who has one adult child, Patricia. The blended family gets along well, and because he trusts Melissa will take care of his children in the event of his death, Bill leaves everything to Melissa.
After just two years being married, Bill dies suddenly. His nearly $1.4 million in assets goes to Melissa. She is extremely distraught following Bill’s death. And although she planned to update her plan to include Harry and Alex, she never gets around to it, and dies just a year after Bill.
Upon her death, all of the assets she brought into the marriage, along with all of Bill’s assets, pass to Melissa’s daughter Patricia, while Harry and Alex receive nothing.
By failing to update his estate plan to ensure that Harry and Alex are taken care of, Bill left the responsibility for what happens to his assets entirely to Melissa.
Whether intentionally or accidentally, Melissa’s failure to include Harry and Alex in her own plan resulted in them being entirely disinherited from their father’s estate.
Scenario 2: Accidentally disinheriting your spouse Blake was married to Morgan for 30 years and they had three children together, all of whom are now adults. When their kids were young, Blake and Morgan both created wills, in which they named each other as their sole beneficiaries.
When they were both in their 50s, and their kids had grown, Blake and Morgan divorced.
Several years later, at age 60, Blake married Veronica, a widow with no children of her own. Blake was healthy, so he didn’t make updating his estate plan a priority. But within a year of his new marriage, Blake died suddenly in a car accident.
Blake’s estate plan, written several decades ago, leaves all of his assets to ex-wife Morgan, or, if she is not living, to his children. State law presumes that Morgan has predeceased Blake because they divorced after the will was enacted.
Thus, all of Blake’s assets, including the house he and Veronica were living in, pass to his children. Veronica receives nothing but a statutorily allowed life estate in the home so long as she can afford to live there.
By failing to update his estate plan to reflect his current situation, Blake unintentionally disinherited Veronica and forced her into a precarious financial position just as she was entering retirement.
Bringing families together
Along with other major life events like births, deaths and divorce, entering a second (or more) marriage requires you to review and rework your estate plan.
Updating your estate and making a clear plan for your blended family is a wonderful gift — you eliminate the questions and potential hard feelings or worse distrust.
This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.
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