Estate Planning and Marriage Breakdown – Paving the Road to a Happy Ever After With Good Intentions

The intention for estate planning is to provide for your children and your children’s children. Unfortunately, there is often a caveat to this longing to benefit your child’s family; no part of the inheritance should be taken by the child’s spouse in the event of a divorce or separation.

The process of estate planning is daunting. But even with the challenges, it’s important to establish and document with an estate administration attorney the intentions of the parent for their child’s inheritance. There are many cases where a parent wishes to offer their child a gift, but they fail to make considerations of what will happen to this gift in the event of a premature death of the child either after the parent dies or before. There is a variety of options that parents can consider in the event that the child predeceases them. These include provisions in a will to distribute the said gift to their children (if any) their siblings and in some cases even their spouses.

In the event that a child dies after receiving their parent’s estate, what happens to this inheritance will depend on how they had invested the funds. A wills and estate lawyer can suggest the funds being put in a trust, but if the child was an elderly adult, they may have already had their own will and instructions for what should happen to the estate.

Can You Control How Your Child Will Handle Their Inheritance Upon Your Death?

While it is possible to guide an instruct your child on what to do with the estate you are gifting them, whether in part or in whole, there is not much you can do when you are dead. An estate administration attorney can help you specify in the will that the inherited estate together with the income got from it should not be cumulated with the child’s net family property. While this will help with equalization, the child can lose this protection in the event that they decide to sell the property, for instance, or transfer a portion of it to a joint spousal bank account.

Parents are usually willing to go great lengths to ensure proper planning of their estate. But all their actions become futile if the parent doesn’t properly communicate with the child and educate them on the need and importance of protecting their inheritance. This conversation should include keeping detailed records on the use of the inherited estate and avoiding combining inheritance with joint assets among others.

Parents that are determined to help their child keep their inheritance especially in cases where the child received the gift before marriage should work with a wills and estates lawyer. The lawyer can advise the child on ways of protecting their inherited estate, such as entering into a prenuptial agreement with the lawyer.