Blended family estate planning isn't just a legal question, it's a financial one too, who gets what, when, and how to make sure a second marriage doesn't accidentally cut out the children from a first marriage. John Diamantis, founder of Heritage Law, brings a background most estate planning attorneys don't have, years as a Bank Trust Officer and Financial Advisor, directly into how he structures plans for blended families in Omaha and across Nebraska and Iowa.
If one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse is often left with the legal ability to change their own will at any time. Without the right structure in place, that means a surviving spouse could remarry, start a new family, and quietly remove the first spouse's children from the plan entirely. This isn't a rare edge case, it's one of the most common ways blended families lose what they intended to protect.
A properly structured marital trust can include a provision requiring a surviving spouse to have a valid prenuptial agreement in place before they're able to access the trust's principal if they remarry. This protects the trust from being emptied out for a new spouse or new family, while still providing for the surviving spouse during their lifetime. It's a specific, deliberate structure, not something a generic will accomplishes on its own.
A lot of blended family planning conversations focus entirely on the legal documents and miss the financial reality underneath them, life insurance beneficiaries, retirement account designations, how assets are titled. Getting the legal structure right while the financial details contradict it defeats the purpose. This is where a background in both matters.
The core risk is that a surviving spouse generally retains the legal ability to change their own will after the first spouse passes away, which can unintentionally cut out children from a previous marriage. Blended family planning addresses this directly, often through a properly structured trust rather than a will alone.
A marital trust holds assets for a surviving spouse's benefit during their lifetime, while controlling what happens to those assets afterward. Provisions can require a prenuptial agreement before a surviving spouse can access the trust's principal if they remarry, protecting the assets for your children.
Yes. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other assets often pass according to their own beneficiary designations, regardless of what your will says. These need to be reviewed and coordinated with your estate plan directly, not assumed to match it.
This is one of the most common situations we work through. The right structure depends on your specific family, how many children each of you have, what assets you're each bringing into the marriage, and what you each want protected.
It depends on the structure involved, a trust-based plan typically starts around $3,000, with more complex situations running higher. We'll give you a clear number once we understand your family's specific situation.
A real conversation about your family's actual situation, not a generic plan.
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