Blended families – those in which one or both spouses have children from a prior relationship – are becoming more and more common. Estate planning for blended families is complex, especially if one spouse is significantly older than the other, or if one spouse has much more money than the other.
Oftentimes, blended family spouses want to provide for the surviving spouse during his/her lifetime, while distributing the balance of the estate to children from the first marriage. Although a trusted estate planning attorney should be utilized to prepare these documents, a custom estate plan for a blended family usually will require separate ownership of assets and a joint revocable trust for each spouse.