Resource Center

Estate planning is often associated with married couples and those who are wealthy. However, single parents who are solely responsible for their children’s well-being should also prioritize estate planning. As a parent, you likely care deeply about your child’s future. Estate planning is a phenomenal way to proactively plan for the future and the various unknowns that come with it.

According to one estimate, about a quarter of all marriages and nearly two-thirds (63%) of remarriages involve stepchildren. No matter how loving and successful, such arrangements often pose unique personal and financial challenges that may only intensify as wealth transfers from one generation to the next. For these reasons, careful estate planning, while highly recommended for any family, is especially vital for blended ones.

Are you and your spouse in relative good health today and able to manage if the other one needed caregiving assistance? If your health took a turn, do you want to age in place, or is it possible that one of your children would want you to live closer by? Talk it through with your spouse and your kids so that everyone understand your wishes.

A second marriage can be a balm for the heartache of losing a spouse, be it through death or divorce. Most people mean well: They want their spouse to inherit their possessions when they die, and their heirs to split what's left when the spouse dies. And they want everyone, including their children and their spouse's children, to be happy. No one wants a brawl to break out when the will is read. Here are five ways to prevent that.

A child’s wedding day is one of the happiest occasions in life for most parents, especially when they approve wholeheartedly of that child’s choice of mate. Sometimes, however, the choice is not always welcomed and parents become concerned about how to protect assets they plan to leave their children in case of a divorce.

If you are considering a divorce, it’s critical to understand the impact of your divorce on what would happen in the event of your incapacity or death, either during the divorce or after. Unfortunately, most divorce lawyers do not give any thought to incapacity or death, simply because they do not have training on these issues specifically and it’s not at the forefront of their minds when they are advising you through your divorce.

Beyond the emotional impact that divorce can have on couples of any age that decide to split, it can have a potentially devastating effect on the retirement plans of those who divorce later in life. Divorce after 50 usually results in a loss of income for both parties, which can mean working longer to fund a single retirement.