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Estate Planning and Divorces

Mississippi Family Law Blog has a very good post explaining the relationship between and estate planning and family law in Estate Planning after a Second Marriage:

"If you have remarried following a divorce or death of a spouse and you have children from the first marriage, you will want to pay close attention to how your estate plan addresses that situation. The best way to handle it is probably the creation of a Trust.

For the couple who marries later in life and has no children together, you can use the Trust to provide a place to live and income for the surviving spouse during his or her lifetime. Upon the death of the surviving spouse though, the estate would pass to the children of the first marriage, as opposed to any children the surviving spouse may have from a previous relationship. In Mississippi, if no Will or Trust addresses the situation, the child from a first marriage will share their deceased parent?s estate with the surviving spouse (step-parent) in equal shares?the surviving spouse receives what is termed a child?s share."

I cannot think of any better advice than this:

To spare your family from litigation related to your estate, you should create or revise your estate plan upon any divorce or remarriage

Full post as published by Sam Hasler's Indiana Divorce & Family Law Blog on October 17, 2008 (boomark / email).