A Smithtown estate planning attorney helps people with many different family situations to address the estate planning issues that affect their lives. Today, there are more blended families than ever before and there are more non-traditional families than at any time in the past. The changes in the ways in which families are formed have necessitated some new changes to the ways in which people plan their estates. 
Mark S. Eghrari & Associates PLLC can help. Our firm knows how to make the law work for you, whatever your family situation is. A Smithtown estate planning attorney at our firm can provide personalized one-on-one advice to help you to protect all of the people that you love, even as your family grows and changes.
If you have just re-married after being in a prior relationship, we can provide you with key advice on what you need to know about how your new marriage can impact your estate plan. We can also help you to take important steps to make sure your new spouse is protected and provided for now that you have formed a new family. Give us a call today to get your plans in place with our help.
Estate Planning Considerations for a Second Marriage
Whenever you get married, it is important to talk with an estate planning lawyer about the ways in which your new relationship should change your estate plan. When you are married, you have a husband or wife who is now depending upon you. Your spouse may need your income to make household bills or may need you to continue providing childcare to shared children. If something happens to you and you cannot be there for your new spouse, you want to make sure that your husband or wife is protected in case of your death or incapacity.
Things become even more complicated if you were already married in the past and you have now entered into a new relationship – especially if you have children from your prior relationship that you also want to provide for. You will need to make sure that your comprehensive estate plan that you create takes the needs of all of your loved ones into account, including both your new spouse as well as any children from a prior marriage.
After you have entered into your new marriage, it is important to make sure that you have changed all of your beneficiary designations on insurance policies and pay-on-death accounts. You likely already removed your former spouse when you divorced, but you want to make sure– and you probably want to change your beneficiary designation to your new spouse.
If your children were named as beneficiaries, however, you may not necessarily want to change everything so your new spouse inherits all of your accounts or receives the full death benefit on a life insurance policy. If you want to take care of both your spouse and children, you may decide to purchase more insurance coverage or to split the policies and accounts you own.
You may also want to change your last will and testament or other estate planning tools to also make sure that you have provided for your new spouse after you pass away. If you had intended for your children to inherit everything and you still want your kids to get your estate assets even despite your new marriage, you still need to make changes to address the fact that your spouse now has a statutory right to claim a share of your estate. If you don’t want your spouse to claim a spousal elective share and take a part of your estate that you intend to leave for your kids, you’ll need to take the right estate planning steps to make sure that this does not happen.
Getting Help from A Smithtown Estate Planning Attorney
Mark S. Eghrari & Associates PLLC will provide you with personalized one-on-one advice on the different steps that you should take during the estate planning process. We adjust our advice to your family situation, including helping you to put the right plans in place if you have entered into a second marriage and want to ensure both your new spouse and your children from a prior marriage are provided for.
To find out more about the ways in which our legal team can help you, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online to to get personalized help with the estate planning process.
Mark S. Eghrari, Estate Planning Attorney
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