Estate Planning for Today’s Modern Family

Today, non-traditional family households outnumber the so-called, “traditional,” husband-and-wife households.  According to U.S. Census Bureau data, married husband-and-wife couples represented 48 percent of American households in 2010, down from 52 percent in 2000 and 78 percent in 1978 percent in 1950. 

While shifting families seem to be the new norm, laws and policies across the U.S. have largely failed to keep pace.  This means that advisors who work with non-traditional families must take extra care when it comes to key estate planning matters.  “Estate planning for what I call a modern family, one that’s blended or has unmarried partners, for example, might require you to handle things like the will, powers of attorney and beneficiary designations differently than you otherwise would.” 

Discrepancies as to how federal and state laws treat couples based on marital status are one reason estate planning for non-traditional families “may require a lot of work-around strategies.” 

For example, it is crucial that estate planning legal documents explicitly specify the rights and powers a surviving partner will have in the event the other partner dies.  Otherwise, unmarried partners are effectively strangers in the eyes of the law, regardless if they have been together for years. 

See David Port, Estate Planning for the Modern Family, Life Health Pro, Sept. 25, 2014.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.