If you’re remarrying it can be an exciting time in your life. Whether you had a rough divorce or your first spouse died, you likely searched long and hard before settling down again.
Now that you’re ready to move forward with a new marriage, you have financial considerations. If you come to the marriage with children from a previous marriage or other beneficiaries, you have to consider both parties when thinking of your death.
While no one wants to think about dying right before they start a new marriage, it’s a fact of life and should be considered before saying ‘I do.’
The Concerns of a Second Marriage
Why should you consider a QTIP for a second marriage?
There are a few reasons.
When you marry for the second time, you usually do so with kids or other relatives already a big part of your life. As you enter your new marriage, your spouse will likely bring his/her ‘people’ too. But when you’re talking about your assets and how you want them disbursed, you probably want them to go to your beneficiaries, not the new family members you may not even know.
Another big reason is when your spouse dies, his/her adult children could take over the assets of your estate. That’s probably not what you intended to happen with your assets. What about your children? Are they left with nothing?
It can and does happen all the time, but with an irrevocable QTIP Property Trust, it can’t. You are in control, even after you die, of who gets your assets.
How a QTIP Property Trust Protects your Assets
A QTIP Property Trust puts your assets into an irrevocable trust. This means you can’t change it. But it protects your assets.
It does two things:
- Gives your spouse reassurance that he/she will have the income typically earned even upon your death. The spouse earns income from the trust and the remainder of the assets stay in the trust.
- Gives your children and current beneficiaries peace of mind knowing they won’t have to fight for your assets – the assets they have the right to when your spouse dies. It eliminates the worries of what could happen if the spouse’s family took over, with a QTIP it’s not an option.
Final Thoughts
If you’re entering a second marriage, consider a QTIP Property Trust. You’ll protect your new spouse and your kids or any beneficiaries you had in mind. While in a perfect world we hope we can trust everyone, you just don’t know what might happen after your death. It’s much better to be safe than sorry, knowing that your loved ones are well cared for.
