February 17, 2020

Getting married to someone in later years is becoming increasingly common. In fact, plenty of research studies are looking into how Millennials choices to get married later could have ripple effects across society and the economy. But there are other reasons you might get married later in life, too.

But what about your own finances? Have you thought about how you’ll plan effectively for your estate when it’s been single living up until now? Most couples entering a marriage later in life have long managed their finances on their own and will have important decisions to make about how best to set up their new life together.

And one aspect of your newly joined partnership should include your estate planning documents. The choices you previously made about your beneficiaries, your power of attorney agent, and many more might have made sense when you were a single person. Perhaps you most recently updated them after a first marriage that ended in divorce.

But adding a new partner into your world calls you to be more effective in terms of planning with this new person on board. Will they be updating their documents to reflect your role in their life, too? How will you handle retirement accounts that both of you have likely accumulated over many years on your own? How do children from past marriages and relationships, if any, factor into these equations? These and many more important questions must be answered.

If you need a place to get started, a consultation with your estate planning lawyer is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you’ve covered all your bases in your planning. Sit down today with an estate planning attorney to discuss what needs to change and what should stay the same if you need to update your estate with your new spouse in mind.