Is Inaction A Feasible Solution To The Stepparent Wars?

Finding love late in life can make you feel young again, but if you truly have your new partner’s best interests in mind, you do not let the butterflies feeling distract you from your awareness of mortality.  Of all the gestures of love you might want to make toward your new sweetie, the one that will make the biggest difference regarding his or her wellbeing is to update your estate plan.  Couples who marry when they are old enough to understand the concept of forever shower each other with estate planning documents, from wills to revocable trusts to transfer on death provisions on bank accounts, and even prenuptial agreements.  Conventional wisdom says that, to give your spouse peace of mind after you are gone, you must put it in writing early on what your spouse will inherit from you and what your children from a previous marriage will inherit.  At least, that is what the old generation would do.  These days, no one has enough money to fight about, so if your spouse and your children from a previous marriage choose probate court at a venue for their battle, it will just be about who gets to have the last word.  Perhaps you should take a page from the playbook of the quiet quitting generation and simply do nothing.  The worst that can happen is that your family will need to hire an Orlando probate lawyer.

Intestate Succession to the Rescue: The Less Is More Estate Plan

When someone dies without a will, the decedent’s surviving relatives can inherit from his or her estate if one of them petitions the probate court to open the estate and designate the petitioner as personal representative of the estate.  When this happens, the probate court follows the laws of intestate succession to determine which relatives inherit how much.  If the decedent has children and a surviving spouse, but the surviving spouse is not the parent of all of the decedent’s children, the surviving spouse inherits half of the estate and the court divides the remaining half equally among the decedent’s children.

If this solution is acceptable to you, then dying without a will is not the worst-case scenario.  It is better to write a will, just in case, though, even if its provisions for distribution of your assets are the same as what would happen under intestate succession.  For example, your will can indicate your wishes about the final disposition of your remains, meaning the burial or cremation of your body.  Your will can also indicate which relative you want to serve as personal representative of your estate, since this can be a contentious issue even if the decedent’s assets were modest.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Probate Cases Involving Blended Families

A probate lawyer can help you in your task as personal representative of an estate plagued by the stepparent wars.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/0732.html