Yours, Mine and Ours

Meg, 41, a single mom of 14-year-old Mary, and John, 46, a divorcee with two children of his own, 12-year-old Ryan, and 10-year-old Elizabeth, after three years of dating, decided to get married. Meg is especially excited to not only marry John, but for her daughter to now have siblings. Shortly after the big day, Meg and John decide to purchase a beautiful home where they planned for their new family to begin the next chapter of their lives.

Once settled into their new home, Meg and John began to take on new responsibilities and new financial obligations began to arise. Now with a family of three children, Meg found herself shuffling between sports games, play dates and doctor appointments; it was a lot to handle with her current job. Meg and John discuss Meg placing her career on hold to care for their three children. John agreed that his current income would be enough to support the family. They both felt satisfied in their new roles, Meg as a stay at home mom and John as the sole earner. Most of their assets were now jointly owned after their marriage and John took over managing their finances. One topic that was not discussed, was the fact that John had created an estate plan years back after his divorce to ensure his children were taken care of, however Mary had never created one. The thought of engaging in this conversation never crossed their minds with so many other activities going on in their new household.

10 years later– Meg and John sadly pass away in a car accident. In addition to dealing with their grief, the children had to take on the responsibility of settling their parent’s estate. During this process, their father’s attorney informed them that although Meg and John built this beautiful life together with their three children, and would want them all to be taken care of equally, John had never updated his trust to reflect this new blended family, so Mary was not included.

Unfortunately, this resulted in John’s children, Ryan and Elizabeth, receiving all the assets in the estate. Meg’s daughter Mary, by not being mentioned in the trust, would have to contest the estate in probate court to be able to receive her share. This not only left Mary overwhelmed and distraught, but put a strain on her relationship with her siblings. Once considered family, they were now at odds over who deserved what, when it came to their parents assets and belongings.

If Meg and John had discussed and updated their estate plan to include all of them, their legacy would have been distributed as they intended it to be, shared equally amongst Ryan, Elizabeth and Mary.