Hello all--
I have been looking through several of the Estate Planning threads trying to understand what makes sense for my situation, but some specific advice would be helpful.
The overall situation is that my fiancé and I (who each have kids from prior marriages) are planning to get married in about 3 years (summer/fall of 2027 once all the kids are out of high school), so I am wondering whether to get a lawyer to do estate planning/set up a trust NOW (with everything going to my kids) and then go through another estate planning process after our marriage (to have some resources directed to DF), or just keep everything with beneficiaries/POD/TOD until the marriage and do joint estate planning afterwards.
DF and I are keeping all assets separate until marriage and, while we haven't decided all the details of what we will do financially after marriage, once one of us passes we do want to make sure that the surviving spouse will be able to live out their life comfortably and with dignity before leaving legacies for our kids. So the estate plan post-marriage will be quite a bit different from what I would want now.
Other relevant information:
1. I live in CA, and I'm aware that the probate process should be avoided.
2. When I initially set up all the beneficiary designations/TOD/POD my accounts were pretty small and it did not seem super important to have something more thoughtful in place. However, now my net worth is hovering around the $1 million mark so it feels more important.
3. I currently have beneficiaries/TOD/POD on almost all of my accounts--right now everything goes 50/50 to my two children (ages 19 and 15). The kids' dad would of course be the guardian for the minor child if anything happened to me.
Accounts with beneficiaries/POD/TOD include:
-----------a. Taxable brokerage with about $330,000
-----------b. Governmental 457(b) with about $200,000
-----------c. Roth IRA with about $125,000
-----------d. Workplace pension with lump-sum value of about $250,000; heirs do not qualify for an annuity from the pension until I begin drawing it in retirement.
-----------e. Life insurance policy (through my job) of $275,000
-----------f. I have a 529 account for each child, total value across both accounts is about $85K. The older child is currently in college so that account is being spent down.
-----------g. Checking/savings/CDs at banks generally fluctuate between $30k-$40k month to month although most of that is a $20K CD maturing March 2025 which is allocated to my older child's final year of college expenses. The older child is co-owner of the CD with me.
4. Assets that do not have beneficiaries/TOD/POD:
----------a. I Bond portfolio with a current value of about $43,000
----------b. Physical precious metals worth about $20,000
----------c. Contents of my apartment (I do not own any real estate), my car, etc.
My instinct is to do the Estate/Trust planning now, and then do it again later after the marriage. But if having the beneficiaries/POD/TOD in place for the bulk of the estate is "good enough" for the next few years and/or setting up/modifying the estate plan/trust is super expensive or cumbersome I'd like to know that.
Thanks in advance for any guidance and suggestions!
I have been looking through several of the Estate Planning threads trying to understand what makes sense for my situation, but some specific advice would be helpful.
The overall situation is that my fiancé and I (who each have kids from prior marriages) are planning to get married in about 3 years (summer/fall of 2027 once all the kids are out of high school), so I am wondering whether to get a lawyer to do estate planning/set up a trust NOW (with everything going to my kids) and then go through another estate planning process after our marriage (to have some resources directed to DF), or just keep everything with beneficiaries/POD/TOD until the marriage and do joint estate planning afterwards.
DF and I are keeping all assets separate until marriage and, while we haven't decided all the details of what we will do financially after marriage, once one of us passes we do want to make sure that the surviving spouse will be able to live out their life comfortably and with dignity before leaving legacies for our kids. So the estate plan post-marriage will be quite a bit different from what I would want now.
Other relevant information:
1. I live in CA, and I'm aware that the probate process should be avoided.
2. When I initially set up all the beneficiary designations/TOD/POD my accounts were pretty small and it did not seem super important to have something more thoughtful in place. However, now my net worth is hovering around the $1 million mark so it feels more important.
3. I currently have beneficiaries/TOD/POD on almost all of my accounts--right now everything goes 50/50 to my two children (ages 19 and 15). The kids' dad would of course be the guardian for the minor child if anything happened to me.
Accounts with beneficiaries/POD/TOD include:
-----------a. Taxable brokerage with about $330,000
-----------b. Governmental 457(b) with about $200,000
-----------c. Roth IRA with about $125,000
-----------d. Workplace pension with lump-sum value of about $250,000; heirs do not qualify for an annuity from the pension until I begin drawing it in retirement.
-----------e. Life insurance policy (through my job) of $275,000
-----------f. I have a 529 account for each child, total value across both accounts is about $85K. The older child is currently in college so that account is being spent down.
-----------g. Checking/savings/CDs at banks generally fluctuate between $30k-$40k month to month although most of that is a $20K CD maturing March 2025 which is allocated to my older child's final year of college expenses. The older child is co-owner of the CD with me.
4. Assets that do not have beneficiaries/TOD/POD:
----------a. I Bond portfolio with a current value of about $43,000
----------b. Physical precious metals worth about $20,000
----------c. Contents of my apartment (I do not own any real estate), my car, etc.
My instinct is to do the Estate/Trust planning now, and then do it again later after the marriage. But if having the beneficiaries/POD/TOD in place for the bulk of the estate is "good enough" for the next few years and/or setting up/modifying the estate plan/trust is super expensive or cumbersome I'd like to know that.
Thanks in advance for any guidance and suggestions!
Statistics: Posted by JayDee37 — Tue May 21, 2024 12:03 pm — Replies 8 — Views 351