It is not a topic that many people want to talk about but death is always looming. It is simply a natural extension of life, and while senior citizens do pass away with much more frequency than their younger counterparts people of all ages die every day.
We are emphasizing this to express why procrastination with regard to updating your estate plan is not acceptable. When you go even a day with an estate plan that does not reflect your current wishes you may well be putting someone that you love at risk.
This is extremely important when you decide to remarry, especially if you have children from a previous marriage or marriages. One way to protect assets for your children from prior marriages is to have you and your new spouse execute a pre-nuptial agreement. But, there is a lot of head trash about taking this step. For some, asking someone to enter into a prenuptial agreement as a condition of marriage can seem inappropriate.
However, rather than being seen as selfish it can be viewed in the opposite fashion. It is an effort to make sure that your children are provided for regardless of what may happen in the future as you maintain full control of your own assets.
Of course you will want to provide for your new spouse as well, and the act of defining your own personal resources is not in any way going to preclude you from doing so.
By making the proper preparations you can take care of all the people that you love in the manner that you see fit. The first step is to discuss the details with a licensed and experienced Oklahoma City estate planning lawyer.
Larry Parman
Author, President and Founding Attorney
Parman & Easterday
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