Remarriage can change who inherits your property, receives insurance proceeds and controls your trust. If you have children from a prior marriage, your existing plan may no longer reflect your family goals.
How can Maryland spousal rights affect inheritance?
Maryland gives a surviving spouse the right to claim an elective share from an estate. If you leave surviving descendants, the elective share generally equals one third of the estate subject to the election. If you leave no surviving descendants, the share generally equals one half.
A prenuptial agreement may change those rights. Maryland law allows a spouse to waive the elective share through a written agreement signed before or after marriage. Your agreement should align with your will, trust and beneficiary designations because conflicting documents could create disputes or lead to unexpected results.
If your will predates your marriage and does not provide for your new spouse, Maryland law may not automatically give them an intestate share. Instead, your spouse may have the option to claim a portion of your estate through the statutory spousal elective share.
How can you protect children from your first marriage?
A plan that leaves most assets to your new spouse may not preserve an inheritance for your children. Your spouse could later change their own estate plan, remarry or use the property during their lifetime. Several tools may help you support your spouse while also setting aside assets for your children.
These options include:
- Separate property trusts: You can place premarital assets or selected property in a trust for your children, with terms that set when and how they receive their inheritance.
- Revocable living trusts: You can name your children as beneficiaries and set age or milestone conditions for distributions while retaining control of the assets during your lifetime.
- Life insurance: Naming your children or a trust as policy beneficiaries may provide a dedicated source of funds without requiring them to wait for other estate assets.
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts: An ILIT can hold a life insurance policy under specific terms and provide structured control over how proceeds are distributed.
- Direct beneficiary designations: You can name children directly on retirement accounts, investment accounts or payable on death bank accounts. Because these designations generally transfer outside a will, they should align with your broader plan.
- Tenancy in common ownership: Holding real estate as tenants in common may preserve a distinct share of the property for your estate or children instead of automatically passing full ownership to your spouse after your death.
- Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements: A written agreement may clarify separate property boundaries and establish inheritance terms, including any planned waiver of the elective share.
A Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP) trust can also provide your spouse with income or other support during their lifetime while preserving the remaining property for your children after your spouse dies. Under certain conditions, QTIP property may qualify for the marital deduction under Maryland tax rules.
An estate planning attorney can help coordinate these options with Maryland law and your family’s priorities.
How should you review beneficiary designations?
A will typically does not govern retirement accounts, life insurance policies or payable on death accounts. After remarriage, reviewing beneficiary choices across retirement plans, insurance policies, bank accounts and employer benefits can help keep those accounts aligned with your updated estate goals.
You can consider these steps:
- Review your will, revocable trust and power of attorney documents.
- Compare each document with any existing prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.
- Determine how you want to divide property between your spouse and children.
- Update beneficiary designations and request written confirmation of the changes.
- Reexamine property deeds and joint ownership structures.
- Review financial management and guardianship provisions for minor children.
- Revisit the overall plan after major life events such as births, deaths or significant financial changes.
Keeping these documents coordinated can help your estate plan reflect your family’s circumstances over time.
Keep your family plan current
Remarriage estate planning in Maryland works best when the different parts of your plan work together. Your spouse, children, trust terms and beneficiary forms should reflect the same goals. A Maryland estate planning lawyer may help you review these choices under current state law and adjust your plan as your family structure changes.