What are the obstacles to creating a smoothly working, carefully coordinated estate plan in families composed of second marriages?
A. With second marriages, estate planning can become very complex and emotional. Often one spouse, or both spouses, has been married multiple times and has children from one or more of the previous marriages as well as the current marriage. All of these relationships must be explored to determine what provision will be made for each class of heirs. Each spouse has individual decisions to make about his or her own children and grandchildren and about how and what he or she will leave to the other spouse. There are also many issues relating to who will control the assets after one spouse dies and how the assets will be distributed after the death of the surviving spouse. One of the most perplexing planning situations arises when a current spouse is close in age to the children of the previous marriage. The older spouse must decide if he or she will leave assets to the younger spouse to defer estate taxes until the younger one’s subsequent death, thereby making the children from the previ
