2021 Trust & Estate Planning for Second Marriages

Second marriages pose a wide range of planning challenges. Planning for the equitable distribution of property in “blended” families – children or grandchildren from a prior marriage, a second spouse, and perhaps children from the second marriage – is fraught with legal and emotional landmines well beyond customary tax planning. Failure to carefully consider objectives and consequences and to communicate and execute plans can easily leave a client’s estate exposed to open and raw disputes among competing heirs and eventually to destructive fiduciary litigation. This program will provide you with a guide to the practical, substantive and tax aspects of planning for clients with second marriages and blended families.

• Emotional context of planning for remarried clients and blended families
• Use of pre-martial agreements to spot contentious issues, align interests, and decrease post-mortem litigation
• Income tax planning issues for the second marriage, including exemptions and credits
• Use of trusts and gifting to prevent unjust enrichment of one branch of a blended family
• Traps and opportunities with retirement benefits
• Post-mortem planning techniques when the first spouse dies – and issues on the “second death”