About four in ten new marriages involve a spouse who has been married before, and each brings a question a first marriage does not: how to take care of the new spouse and still leave what you intended to your own children. Leaving everything to the survivor and trusting the outcome is a gamble. A QTIP trust pays the spouse income for life and sends the remainder to the children the first spouse named, with no estate tax at the first death.
The rest of the checklist is where second marriages go wrong. Florida's elective share gives the survivor 30 percent of an estate that reaches revocable trusts and retirement accounts, so a plan that leaves less needs a marital agreement with a waiver. Florida homestead cannot be devised away from a surviving spouse without one. Beneficiary designations on insurance and retirement accounts override the Will, and a 401(k) must pay the spouse unless she signs a consent. Life insurance can equalize, stepchildren must be named to inherit, and a written list for personal property prevents most of the fights. The plan that nobody explained is the plan that gets contested.
The full piece is at turnipseed.law.
