Parents who remarry need to update their estate plan

Things don’t always work out long-term with spouses you have a child with. But, ending a marriage with your child’s parent does not mean that you are consigned to being single forever. Many parents go on to find true love with someone else.

One thing you will need to do if you decide to remarry is update your estate plan. You should have adjusted it when you divorced to remove your ex-spouse from it. You might have rewritten the plan to leave everything to your child. If you remarry, your new spouse will typically gain a right to some of those assets. Steps you can take to control the distribution include:

Prenuptials

You can use a prenuptial to separate certain assets for your kids, making it clear that your spouse will not be entitled to them. 

Trusts

Before remarrying, you could transfer specific assets into a trust with your child as the beneficiary so that there is no danger of those assets ever being considered part of the marital estate with your new spouse. 

Beneficiary designations

You could also designate your child as the beneficiary of assets that give you the option to do so directly through a beneficiary designation. Options that allow this include certain retirement accounts and retirement funds. Those assets will go to the designated beneficiary regardless of what your will says.

Seeking legal guidance to understand the options and how state laws would distribute your estate if you did nothing can help you make appropriate choices to protect your child’s inheritance when remarrying. You may of course want your new spouse to receive some assets if you die before them. With appropriate guidance you can create a plan that works for you.