As we all know, the typical family from the 1950’s television shows such as “Leave it to Beaver” have become a rarity over the years. A couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary is not so commonplace. Today, approximately fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. In the traditional family, estates usually involve wills and the use of “joint and survivorship” ownership between husband and wife or “beneficiary designations” to ensure that upon the death of a spouse everything would pass to the surviving spouse. However, in today’s modern family, there may be a second or even third spouse and children from prior marriages. How does an individual take care of his or her current spouse yet protect his/her children from a prior marriage?
The problem with leaving everything outright to one’s spouse in such a family is that the spouse may presumably leave everything to a new spouse or to their own children upon their death, leaving the children from one’s prior marriage with nothing. Even providing for one’s children in one’s will may not solve the problem because in Ohio a surviving spouse has certain statutory rights. These include: (1) the first $40,000 of the deceased spouse’s estate; … Read More... “Estate Planning For The Modern Family – Use Of The QTIP Trust For Second Marriages”