Remarriage and Your Trust
We see it often in our practice. A couple prepares their estate plan, including a joint revocable trust. One spouse dies, and eventually the surviving spouse remarries. What is the relationship between remarriage and your trust plan? Michael Berezo Michael Berezo lived in Kirkwood, Missouri. He had married Alene Haskell in 1986; the couple had […]
You Have a Trust — Now You Need a Beneficiary Designation
MARCH 21, 2016 VOLUME 23 NUMBER 11 You have decided to create a revocable living trust, naming your oldest daughter as successor trustee. Your trust directs that, upon your death, $10,000 is to go to each of your grandchildren, $50,000 to the Good Intentions charity, and everything else will be divided equally among your three […]
Does Your Existing Trust Split Into Two Shares On a Spouse’s Death?
MARCH 9, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 10 A letter from a reader asks: “My husband and I set up a revocable trust which will divide our assets in half when one of us dies. This was to avoid estate taxes. Now that estate taxes are no longer a problem, are there still benefits to splitting […]
Can You Disinherit Your Spouse? It Depends
NOVEMBER 4, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 42 Most of us are fascinated by the lives and deaths of famous people. Their legal and financial affairs tend to be complicated, and they are sometimes messy. They may also provide some constructive information, useful to illustrate broader points applicable to many of us. One such illustration: the […]
Step-Children and Disinherited Children Might Have Rights — It Depends
NOVEMBER 12, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 41 A prospective client asks: “Can my mother cut me out of her will after my father dies? His will leaves everything to the children after her death.” That deceptively simple question comes in a number of variations (like: “My mother’s will left everything to her children, but her […]
Dispute Over Family Home Pits Children Against Stepchildren
OCTOBER 19, 2009 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 58 More than a decade ago we told you about a Utah case involving a widower’s remarriage (see Surviving Spouse Revokes Trust–Children Disinherited from February 2, 1998) . Although the children of the deceased woman and her surviving husband were supposed to receive everything on his later death, the widower […]