Carl and Mary: A Blended Family Creates Separate Living Trusts

With the coronavirus has come a new urgency to create estate planning documents. Those who are scheduling appointments don’t fit a stereotype. There are seniors, of course, but also those thinking about retirement, single adults and young families who want to provide a safety net for their children.

Many of the couples we see are blended families. For these couples, estate planning gets a little more complicated. By the time people get to their second or third marriages, there are several homes and other assets, two sets of children and grandchildren. Each partner wants to make sure their respective families receive their share of the estates.

Carl and Mary: A blended family who met over an afternoon of bridge

Carl and Mary are a good example of one of these blended families. They’re both in their 70s and met over a Rossmoor bridge table. They’ve been married for five years and continue to live at Carl’s Rossmoor home in Walnut Creek. Both of their spouses died. Carl has two adult sons and Mary has two adult daughters, and there are assorted grandchildren.

Carl and Mary are financially comfortable, healthy and thoroughly enjoying retirement

Carl and Mary are part of a generation that worked for one company for their entire careers and were rewarded with healthy pensions. Mary was an RN and Carl worked for Diablo Community College. Both also inherited their deceased spouse’s pensions. Mary owned a home in Hayward that she rented out and both received social security. Carl sold his Pleasant Hill home and downsized when he moved into Rossmoor.

They saw no reason to commingle their estates

Carl and Mary really didn’t see anything to be gained from commingling their estates. Each was comfortable financially, and both Carl and Mary wanted to leave their children their estates. California Document Preparers worked with Mary and Carl to identify a solution: Each would create a separate Living Trust for his/her own estate.

• Carl’s Rossmoor home, in which they lived, would go into his Trust.
• Mary’s Hayward home, that she rented out, would go into her Trust.
• Carl and Mary would be each other’s Power of Attorney, with their sons and daughters as respective backups.

The couple’s adult children were relieved that their parents had finally completed their Trust. They’d been putting this off, but the coronavirus health crisis brought it back into focus.

During this health crisis, many are feeling an urgency to create a Living Trust 

Our Trust package includes a Will, Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive and Incapacity Planning. We guide you through the process and prepare the legal documents. At California Document Preparers, for most of our services, we charge one flat fee. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. Schedule an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area offices in Dublin, Walnut Creek or Oakland. 

We service the entire East Bay and North Bay areas

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy, Hayward and Fremont. Our clients also live in the Napa Valley, Benicia, Vallejo, Martinez, Fairfield.