Blended Families: It’s Complicated

Estate planning can be especiallycomplicated when dealing with blended families. Financial Advisor DavidChalmers explains what people can do to avoid the complication, “There aremore hands reaching out for the money than there were before. It isn’t going tochange the decision about who we are going to marry, but making intentionsclear is the main thing.”

In Canada, it was very common that aremarriage cancelled previous estate planning documents. Ironically, a divorcedid not have the same effect. Recently, Alberta and British Columbia havejoined Quebec in determining that marriage no longer revokes wills, while adivorce indicates that a former spouse is not entitled to a gift under thewill.  

See Ray Turchansky Turchansky :Divorce and Remarriage can Complicate Estate Planning, Edmonton Journal,  Aug. 8, 2013.