Seniors Getting Married - Estate Planning Considerations
Seniors getting married and estate planning.
People are getting married later in life. Marriages, with one or both spouses being seniors, retired, and having grown children, have become quite common. And while its fantastic to know that love can blossom at any age and usually children and grandchildren are happy that their parents have companions to spend their later years with, these marriages require unique estate planning considerations.
Estate planning for later life marriages is complicated for a number of reasons. These "senior" marriages can directly impact the inheritance of the children and other family members on both sides. Remarriages also can affect a spouse’s right to alimony payments from a prior spouse, retirement benefits, social security benefits, health insurance, and the spousal medical care obligations. Its important for both spouses to clearly address who their assets are intended to benefit, whether it’s the new spouse, the children and families or a trust – both while the spouses are alive, upon the death of one of them, and when both die.
Other considerations that should be addressed as a part of the estate planning process should include whether long-term care insurance is needed; should income and assets be blended or kept separate; how the primary residence is treated both during life, and upon the death of one spouse, and then both spouses; is a post or prenuptial agreement necessary or advisable as part of the estate planning process; how do the parties wish to pay for future medical expenses (for example, is it advisable to deplete the assets of one spouse first).
People in later year marriages also should consider the conflicts that could arise between the spouse and children should agents named for medical and general powers of attorney need to act. The best way to avoid this is to think these conflicts through in the planning phase and coordinate the choice of fiduciaries in the documents – with the fiduciaries having a clear understanding of the spouse’s agreements to the later life marriage concerns, as delineated above.
