Meet Mark And Susan.

Mark and Susan married in their early sixties.

Both had children from previous marriages. Mark had two adult sons, while Susan had a daughter and a son. They owned a home together, maintained some separate assets, and each had retirement accounts and life insurance that had been established years before they met.

Their goals seemed simple.

They wanted the surviving spouse to be financially secure.

They also wanted each of their children to ultimately receive the inheritance they intended for them.

But as they began discussing their estate plan, they realized those goals did not automatically lead to the same result.

Mark and Susan had assumed that if one of them died first, the surviving spouse would simply take care of the children fairly later.

But estate planning gave them a reason to look more closely at what would actually happen.

How was their home titled?

Who was named on their retirement accounts and insurance policies?

Which assets should remain available to the surviving spouse?

And how could they clearly document what they ultimately wanted to leave to their respective children?

They realized that relying only on good intentions could leave too much open to interpretation.

They Needed More Than An Assumption.

Their planning conversations focused on what each spouse wanted to accomplish while both of them were still able to make those decisions together.

They discussed which assets should support the surviving spouse, what they hoped would eventually pass to their children, and who should be responsible for carrying out those instructions.

They also reviewed beneficiary designations and ownership arrangements that could affect how property passed outside of a will or trust.

For Mark and Susan, the goal was not to treat every asset exactly the same.

It was to make their intentions clear.

Fair Does Not Always Mean Equal.

Blended families often bring together different histories, relationships, assets, and responsibilities.

A surviving spouse may need financial security while children from a prior relationship may also be intended beneficiaries of part of the estate.

Depending on the family and the planning selected, trusts and other estate planning tools can sometimes be structured to provide benefits for a surviving spouse while also directing remaining property according to predetermined instructions.

Because blended family planning can involve important legal, tax, and beneficiary considerations, the appropriate structure depends on the individual circumstances.

The most important step for Mark and Susan was having the conversation while they could still make those choices together instead of leaving the next generation to guess what they intended.

Planning Tools In The Conversation