How utilizing a Pre-Nuptial Agreement in Estate Planning, after marriage, can Protect your Spouse and Children

We know that most of you thinking about your legacy and your estate planning, are happily married, now for many years, and wouldn’t have any use for a Pre-Nuptial Agreement.  But in the context of estate planning, a Pre-Nuptial Agreement is a powerful tool.      

A Pre-Nuptial Agreement, meaning “before marriage”, is an agreement between an engaged couple, establishing how separate assets owned before marriage and later marital assets are to be divided in the event they divorce.   

So how does a Pre-Nuptial Agreement help my estate plan if I’m already married?  We have all heard the story of a widowed older man’s second marriage to a younger woman.  The older man later dies, and the younger 2nd wife gets everything leaving the man’s children, born of his first wife, no inheritance.  Or the older man ends up getting divorced from his 2nd younger wife, with her talking half of the older man’s estate.  Another scenario, the older man and the 2nd younger wife, have a new child that ends up receiving all of the inheritance, to the exclusion of the older man’s children with his first wife.  These are all common stories that happen with women too, and believe it or not, remarriage after the death of a first spouse is becoming more and more common, even at advanced ages, which means these stories will become more common too. 

Enter your estate plan, and how a Pre-Nuptial Agreement can protect the loved one’s you leave behind.  It’s really pretty simple.  In our firm’s trust planning for our clients, we often insert language in the Trust requiring the surviving spouse to enter into a Pre-Nuptial Agreement with a potential new spouse, in order to continue access to the assets of the trust. 

This protects the marital estate you and your spouse worked so hard to build from a “gold-digger”.  In the event of a subsequent divorce, the Trust’s assets are protected, and the entirety of the estate stays with the surviving spouse.  It also gives the surviving spouse an innocent and convenient excuse to request a Pre-Nuptial Agreement.  “Listen darlin, I want to marry you, but all of my assets and income come from this Trust. The trust requires we sign this pre-nup, otherwise I lose access to my assets and income, and we are both poor.”

The pre-nup clause also ensures at least half of the marital trust estate goes to the chosen beneficiaries of the 1st spouse to die’s chosen heirs.  This means your shared children cannot be cut out for the benefit of at least one-half interest of the marital trust estate for a 2nd spouse or any children derived from that second marriage.

Want to find out more ways we can help ensure your legacy?  Contact our office to make an appointment with one of our attorneys to discuss other ways estate planning can protect your family. (307) 316-9340.