Estate Planning for Blended Families

Second marriages create one of the most difficult estate planning challenges in Pennsylvania law — the tension between providing for a surviving spouse and ensuring children from a prior relationship inherit.

The Conflict

Without planning, the surviving spouse may receive the bulk of the estate (by elective share, joint ownership, or beneficiary designation) and then leave everything to their children — effectively disinheriting the first spouse's children. Alternatively, the deceased may have tried to leave everything to children, only to have the surviving spouse exercise their elective share right to one-third of the estate (20 Pa.C.S. § 2203).

Tools for Blended Families

• QTIP Trust (Qualified Terminable Interest Property): Provides income (and potentially principal) to the surviving spouse for life, with the remainder passing to the children from the first marriage at the spouse's death. This is the gold standard for blended family planning.
• Prenuptial / Postnuptial Agreements: The surviving spouse can waive the elective share right in a properly executed prenuptial or postnuptial agreement (23 Pa.C.S. § 3106). This is the only reliable way to prevent an elective share claim.
• Separate property agreements: Keeping certain assets in separate ownership (not joint) and designating children as beneficiaries on retirement accounts and insurance.
• Life insurance as an equalizer: Using a policy to provide for the surviving spouse while preserving other assets for children, or vice versa.