Call Us Today At 608.829.2525

Horn & Johnsen

  • Home
  • Estate Planning
    • Wills
    • Trusts
    • Medicaid
    • LGBTQ
    • Legal Concept Videos
    • Events
  • Practice Areas
    • Probate
    • Guardianship
    • Business Law
    • Real Estate Law
    • Legal Concept Videos
    • Events
  • Attorneys
    • John Horn
    • Dera Johnsen-Tracy
    • Events
  • Videos
  • H&J Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
Free Estate Planning Book

Providing Divorce Protection for Your Children

Providing Divorce Protection for Your Children

by HJ / Monday, 21 July 2014 / Published in Horn & Johnsen News

Providing Divorce Protection for Your Children

Despite the fact that the Baby Boomer generation has seen high divorce rates, my experience has been that parents of Baby Boomers generally did not wish to discuss divorce protection for their children and grandchildren.  Times have changed…

Most people now acknowledge that divorce is a common occurrence.  Therefore, why not provide your beneficiaries with the opportunity to protect their inherited assets in the event of a future divorce?

Traditional estate planning, including the use of direct beneficiary designations, wills, and “bare bones” living trusts, usually provide for an outright distribution to your beneficiaries upon your death.  Most often, married beneficiaries will then promptly place these assets into various accounts titled jointly with their spouses.  Even if your beneficiary keeps the account titled solely titled in his or her own name, he or she may later add to the account using marital income.  At that point, the account has been comingled and may no longer be considered individual property (also known as separate property).  Thus, in the event of divorce, half of your hard-earned assets may end up in the hands of your beneficiary’s ex-spouse.

Rather than distributing your assets outright upon your death, a properly drafted living trust can instead distribute inherited assets to each child or other beneficiary in the form of a divorce protection trust.  Each child can act as his or her own trustee, and you can specify that there are no restrictions as to how your child can use the assets of the trust.  Any assets that remain titled in the name of your child’s divorce protection trust would be clearly identified as your child’s separate property, not to be divided in a divorce proceeding.

You can also specify within your living trust how the assets of your child’s divorce protection trust would be distributed upon your child’s death.  If you wish, you can even provide your child with the power to name his or her spouse as the beneficiary of the trust upon his or her death.  However, if there is a subsequent divorce, your child can then change the beneficiary – never losing divorce protection!

Divorce protection is one of the many options available within a comprehensive living trust plan.  If you are interested in providing your children or other beneficiaries with divorce protection, if you have minor beneficiaries, if you have special needs beneficiaries, or if you simply wish to make things as easy as possible for your loved ones upon your death or incapacity, you should contact us today to set up your free initial consultation regarding crafting a plan that will best accomplish your desired objectives.

Source: News feed

Tagged under: Charging Fees

What you can read next

Family holding model of a house
Estate Planning 101 w/ Dera L. Johnsen-Tracy
How Vacation Planning is Similar to Estate Planning
Special Needs Trust
Who to Call When You Need a Special Needs Trust Madison WI

Recent Posts

  • dictionary picture of probate meaning

    Help Your Heirs Avoid Probate With a Living Trust

    Probate can be an extremely time consuming and ...
  • I Don’t Have Children – Do I Really Need an Estate Plan

    I Don’t Have Children – Do I Really Need an Estate Plan?

    Many people who have no children wonder whether...
  • person jumping up steps to the end

    Steps to Prepare for End of Life

    Many people neglect to take all of the necessar...
Horn & Johnsen SC - Estate Planning Center of Wisconsin

Estate Planning
Guardianship
Business Law
LGBTQ

Probate
Medicaid
Real Estate
Special Needs

APPOINTMENT LOCATIONS

Madison
Waukesha
Baraboo
Brookfield
Sauk City
Janesville

DOWNLOAD PERSONAL INFORMATION QUESTIONAIRE

SUBSCRIBE TO HORN & JOHNSEN

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously.

OFFICE LOCATION

Horn & Johnsen SC
8446 Excelsior Drive, Suite 102
Madison, WI 53717
P. 608.829.2525
E. info2016@hornjohnsen.com
Sitemap

Copyright 2019 Horn & Johnsen. Powered by Digital Fitness.

TOP