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How to plan your estate if you get remarried

On Behalf of | May 31, 2022 | estate administration & probate |

Getting ready to plan your estate in Indiana will involve a lot of thought. You need to be sure that you get all of the details right. Doing so will take a lot of worry off your mind after you sign on the dotted line. One of the biggest concerns you should have is to amend your estate to reflect a blended family.

You’ll need to update your estate plan

Estate planning is a process that doesn’t always come to a halt when you sign your last set of documents. This is all the more true if you draw up your estate plan at a young age. If this is the case, there may be any number of amendments that will need to be made to reflect changes that happen to various beneficiaries.

For example, some of the people you have named as beneficiaries in your estate plan may pass away before you do. In this case, you will need to remove them from your plan. You may also get divorced and then remarry. In doing so, you may acquire a number of stepchildren or have new children with your present spouse.

Should this occur, you will need to reflect these changes by making a series of timely updates to your estate plan. The last thing you want is for your former spouse to get all of your benefits because you forgot to change the people who are named as beneficiaries in your plan. This can lead to endless legal hassle.

Providing for your blended family

It’s a good idea to plan ahead if you intend to leave your newly blended family members with a suitable inheritance. It’s a good idea to revisit your estate plan at the beginning of every year to see if any changes should be made.

Doing so will make it a great deal easier for all of the people you have named as a beneficiary. A clearly worded and suitably updated estate plan will hold up best in court.