2024 Survival Estate Planning For Blended Families

This class is for anyone in a blended or non-traditional family who wants to learn how to make sure the people you love (your chosen family) are taken care of, no matter how the law labels your family. Modern families are increasingly non-nuclear and include single-parents as well as couples that are cohabitating or voluntarily childless and extended families, same-sex families, stepfamilies, and grandparent families. Unfortunately, existing estate planning laws were written to accommodate the old-fashioned definition of the traditional “nuclear family." While you may see step-family members the same way as your blood relatives, the law does not. As a result, when it comes to death or incapacity, the law lags behind, which means that if you don’t have a custom estate plan in place, the people you love most could find themselves accidentally disinherited or stuck in a lengthy and expensive court battle. It's important to create a custom estate plan that ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your partners, children, and chosen family members are protected and cared for if something happens to you, especially if they are not recognized under default inheritance laws.