Back in the day, the American dream for the ideal family involved heterosexual couples with two kids – a girl and a boy – standing smiling in front of a white picket fence home. The reality is far from it.
Today, families come is all types of packages. You have your average American families, LGBTQ+ parents, foster families, adoptive families, single parents, and the Brady Bunch families. Then there are families without children. Each one of them is just as beautiful.
Today, we are focusing on the Brady Bunch.
If you’re familiar with this 1970s show, you would recall that it surrounded the ups and downs of having a blended family. While the show didn’t really zero in on the Bradys’ estate planning, it is a challenge real blended families face. It’s difficult to decide who the parents name as beneficiary in their irrevocable trust in Queens.
With more than 50 percent of families in the United States being blended, it is important to shed some light on the subject.
Estate planning for blended families – the challenges
When the time comes and your spouse and you decide it’s time to set up an irrevocable trust in Queens, things can get tricky. Predicaments may arise when there are certain unspoken expectations involved.
For example, one spouse may expect the other one to split the estate equally between all the children. Similarly, the other spouse may feel like the step-kids shouldn’t get an equal share as they have the other biological father/mother to inherit from.
As you can imagine, setting up a revocable or irrevocable trust in Queens can quickly become a family feud.
An estate planning lawyer in Queens would advise you to figure out these details in a prenuptial agreement, before you get re-hitched. However, getting married is not probably the time you’ll be thinking about the time of both your deaths.
To summarize, since estate planning in Queens is a sensitive topic, it can cause some frictions. This is especially more challenging to navigate when you’re a part of a blended family. The following tips may help ease some of the tension when it’s time to set up that living or irrevocable trust in Queens.
Setting authority
In many cases, spouses often set up an estate plan that leaves the joint assets and estate to the surviving spouse who receives the inheritance. They will be free to use the assets as they please.
It’s happened before in these situations where the living spouse favors their own biological kids when the times for them to set up their irrevocable trust in Queens.
To prevent this situation from arising, it’s important that you clarify who holds the authority when it comes to distributing your assets. This won’t be exactly a simple task, but you can sit with your estate planning lawyer in Queens and sort it out.
Deciding on your final home – signing the Disposition of Remains form
Thinking about your final resting place isn’t a pleasant tangent to be on. Nonetheless, it matters to most people (possibly).
For instance, assume there is somebody Jewish, married to a Goy (non-Jew). They might want to be buried in the Jewish cemetery, but their surviving spouse might not agree. This could lead to the deceased’s last wishes being dishonored.
In New York, the form can be found on the New York Department of Health website. The form will allow you to choose one person to make the funeral and burial arrangements.
Consider setting up and irrevocable trust in Queens
If you die without an estate plan or leave everything to your surviving spouse, your biological children may have to wait for the stepparent to kick the proverbial bucket so they can inherit. As a result, tensions may rise between them.
To find a way around it, an estate planning lawyer may suggest setting up an irrevocable trust. This way, you can pass on some assets to your biological children they’ll receive at your passing without anybody else claiming them.
Along with that, there are other things to consider as well, such as who will be the healthcare proxy, the trustee, POA, etc. When all of these details are decided on, you can proceed and set up an irrevocable trust in Queens.To tie it all up, having your own modern-day Brady Bunch is the dream when it comes to blended families. Every family person wants everyone to get along and be accommodative.
However, things aren’t as simple in reality. There can be misunderstandings and expectations that cause some friction. The right to do here would be consulting an estate planning lawyer in Queens and coming up with a plan that doesn’t leave people hurting.
