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You’ve Blended Your Family, Have You Updated Your Estate Plan?

Lucere Legal helps with blended family estate planning
Categories: Blended Families

Marriage has evolved over the years–today a majority of Americans wisely choose not to endure a relationship that simply doesn’t work. Whether you’ve been married twice, thrice, or more, you know the changes you’ve made have been right for you and right for your family. Still, our society is still working out that delicate balance between the needs of a multi-generational blended family with your own wishes.

Estate planning in those cases can be especially complicated–even when all the members of a blended family get along! Creating the intimate relationship of a new family from two frequently causes some friction, particularly if there remains some unhappiness about the original divorce. Adding estate planning into that mixture only serves to intensify that discord, so much so that some people prefer to avoid the issue of inheritance entirely.

As an experienced estate planning attorney, I’m here to tell you: Having no plan is not a good plan.

Just in case you still have cold feet about confronting the subject, here are four basic components of any effective estate plan that are vital for your family’s future:

  • Any ex-spouses do not inherit;
  • Your own children are protected;
  • Your current spouse is provided for;
  • Any estate taxes are minimized.

I’ve created a video that explains the general concept for a strategy that meets all these goals. You can watch it here.

Your family is like no other, so shouldn’t your estate plan be the same? The assistance of an expert when drafting your plan will ensure that your particular circumstances are fully covered and that your family doesn’t have any unpleasant surprises after you’re gone.

This is all the more true for a blended family. While a huge array of advice exists online or in books, few are targeted toward blended families and none could begin to address the complexities. Even if you’re a fan of a tough do-it-yourself project, estate planning for your blended family does not make a good one.

An experienced estate planning attorney can provide you with the individual attention you need to create an estate plan for your blended family.  If you’d like to learn more about estate planning for blended families, call our office today to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk.

Call us today at 612-206-3701 and mention this article or reach out via our contact form.

Image Courtesy of Boians Cho Joo Young | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Do you have a cabin?

The first generation that buys a cabin enjoys it to the fullest and it’s a magical place where happy memories are made and families go for some much needed respite. Unfortunately, without thoughtful planning, the chances of the cabin staying a place of happiness and tranquility into successive generations is very, very slim.

If you haven’t done the planning in advance and made it legally binding, the family members (and their ex-spouses and new spouses) will have to work every detail out for themselves. If they can’t, what is likely to happen is a lawsuit called an action for partition that forces everyone to sell their interest. This lawsuit is expensive, and the costs of litigation will come out of the proceeds of the sale of the cabin, so to add insult to injury to those who wanted to keep the cabin but couldn’t afford to buy the others out, they are footing part of the legal bills in the lawsuit against them. Ouch!

It’s no wonder that family members stop speaking for years after the cabin conflict is “resolved.” You can’t make family relationships perfect, but you can take away much of the fuel for the family conflict fire. That’s what cabin planning does, and it has the nice side effect of giving you peace of mind now.

That’s why Kimberly wrote The Minnesota Cabin Planning Guide and Workbook, and you can get a free electronic copy of her book on our cabin planning website, or you can find it in many county libraries in Minnesota, or you can get it on amazon.com.

Go To Our Cabin Website

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Lucēre Legal, LLC helps business owners and their families with small business law, estate planning, and probate administration services in the greater Twin Cities metro area, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, Edina, Bloomington, Wayzata, Plymouth, Golden Valley, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Roseville, St. Louis Park, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Woodbury, Maplewood, Burnsville, Anoka, and Hopkins. The firm also serves people in the communities in Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Anoka County, Dakota County, Washington County, Scott County, and Carver County.

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