Family Estate Planning Attorney in Ketchum, Idaho
How do you estate plan for the death of a spouse?
How do you estate plan for the death of a spouse?
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00:04
planning for spouses
00:06
involves a lot of discussion
00:09
it’s a little easier when people uh for
00:12
a married couple when they’re older and
00:13
they’ve seen
00:14
their friends who have lost a spouse
00:16
they understand
00:18
when a spouse doesn’t receive an
00:20
inheritance
00:22
versus or receives it in trust versus
00:25
outright one can leave assets to their
00:28
spouse
00:29
outright and that spouse can have full
00:31
control
00:32
over the assets after their
00:35
spouse has died people like simple that
00:38
is simple
00:39
but it’s not necessarily estate tax
00:42
efficient
00:43
and it doesn’t necessarily protect your
00:45
children because when you leave
00:47
assets to someone outright or in their
00:49
own revocable trust
00:51
they can leave those assets to whomever
00:53
they choose
00:54
with a little bit of planning you when a
00:58
spouse dies
00:59
their share can go into a trust for the
01:01
benefit of the surviving spouse
01:03
and there can be depending upon the type
01:05
of trust that we’re talking about it
01:07
could be an exempt trust
01:08
or what’s called a marital trust there
01:10
could be
01:11
creditor protection attained there’s
01:14
assurance
01:15
to some extent for the first spouse that
01:17
dies that their assets will pass
01:20
according to the plan as they put into
01:22
place
01:23
as opposed to leaving everything
01:25
outright to their surviving spouse
01:27
to take care of the kids and
01:30
sometimes the decision is based upon
01:32
what other assets or
01:34
how a spouse receives their own
01:37
inheritance if one of the spouses
01:40
comes from a family where they have
01:42
family trust
01:43
in place it might be fine to leave
01:46
everything to their surviving spouse
01:48
because they know that their family
01:49
trusts are going to go along their
01:51
bloodlines to their children
01:52
you know one thing that we try to
01:54
address in
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marital planning is to make sure that
01:58
for
01:59
one of the spouses that has a trust that
02:01
if there’s a premature death that that
02:04
surviving spouse is adequately
02:06
taken care of you want to try and avoid
02:08
having super wealthy kids
02:10
because they’ve received their
02:11
inheritance because their parent has
02:13
died
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and a spouse who um was
02:17
left out of that family planning so it
02:19
has to all be
02:20
coordinated and it’s not just it’s not
02:23
about trusting your spouse
02:25
it’s really about looking to the future
02:28
and understanding that that surviving
02:31
spouse will likely have another
02:33
relationship
02:34
and if you’ve married a really wonderful
02:35
spouse your spouse will probably want to
02:38
take care of the next person they love
02:40
too
02:40
so it’s again about protecting your kids
02:43
being clear
02:44
clear-minded and organized in your
02:48
planning
Contact Jill Eshman
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Los Angeles, CA Estate Planning & Probate lawyer Jill Eshman explains how to estate plan for the death of a spouse.
