No, your children weren’t thrilled when you divorced their mother. They were even less thrilled a year later when you married her.
But through it all, you loved them, and they loved you.
And that’s why people in Gold River and surrounding areas – both men and women – will want to make sure their children will receive their inheritance when the parents pass away.
Would you really want the person the kids consider to be their wicked stepmother – or stepfather – to try to deny your children their share of the assets you worked so hard to build during your life? Of course not, so that’s why you need to make sure you create an iron-clad estate plan before you pass away and make all your wishes known to every involved party.
Cases that pit stepparents against their stepchildren in areas such as will contests, probate or disputes of trust accounts occur more often than you know.
The stepfamily relationship is often complex, and even when both stepparent and stepchild try to get along, it doesn’t always happen. So, when it comes to an estate, it shouldn’t be expected that the two sides will see eye-to-eye by any means.
If your spouse is the executor of the estate, disputes can flare up. Stepchildren can perceive their parent’s new spouse as perhaps someone who was after nothing but money and who convinced their parent to modify their will during a relatively short marriage to receive the lion’s share of assets. Or maybe they see the stepparent as someone who wants to take the assets of their deceased spouse and spread them among their own children instead of the stepchildren.
You don’t want to leave behind a mess that ties up your assets in probate. You don’t want your money and property to wind up with the person you didn’t intend to be the recipient. You don’t want your child to try to deprive your spouse of an inheritance – or vice versa.
You hold the key to making sure your assets fall into the right hands. By working with a California estate attorney to create a proper estate plan, you can do just that.