You are married with children. You have no Will. Naturally, you assume your spouse inherits your estate. No questions, no issues. Wrong.
Your spouse inherits the first $30,000. The rest is split between your spouse and the kids. That may not sound horrible; but, the state won’t let your Executor just give the money to your minor children. So, then you need to hire an attorney to set up a Trust. And, the state doesn’t trust your Spouse, so you will likely wind up having a different person serving as a Trustee!
Or how about this scenario: You are married and don’t have any children. You have no Will. Ok, this time you assume your spouse inherits your estate. No questions, no issues. Wrong again.
Your spouse inherits the first $30,000. This time, the rest is split between your spouse and your parents. So, the good news this time is your Executor doesn’t need to hire an attorney for a Trust. But, aside from your spouse not inheriting your estate, your parents, who appropriately planned with their financial advisor to have the state pay for their upcoming nursing home just wound up being disqualified from medical assistance because they have this new-found inheritance. And, they can’t even enjoy this inheritance you gave them because it is being paid to the nursing home, which the state would have otherwise paid for!
These situations are easily avoided through proper estate planning. Please contact Adam Anderson, at 412-209-3200 for a free consult.