You are combining a lot of things when you are moving in with your new spouse, including your finances. This can add unnecessary or additional financial related stress if you haven’t taken the proper planning steps to ensure that you have looked at the big picture and drilled all the way down into the details to determine what is most important to both of you.

Make sure that you consider the most important six considerations for getting remarried, which include:

• Update estate planning documents to reflect your new beneficiaries and to remove former spouses.
• Review benefits and insurance policies to determine whether additional policies are needed.
• Evaluate any financial obligations for each party, including child support.
• Update the budget to include your new family structure.
• Create an inheritance plan.
• Knowing that a prenuptial agreement does NOT bar assets from being counted in the name of both spouses by certain agencies, including Medicaid

There is a lot to think about with getting remarried and in this exciting time, it’s easy to overlook some of the smaller details that could affect your new family structure.

The right estate planning documents must be in place if either one of you has children from a prior relationship to protect these children from being disinherited. Talk to your estate planning lawyer about what's required to ensure that your inheritance plan is still accomplishing your primary goals.

In our Michigan estate planning office, we can work with you annually to verify that your information is up to date and to discuss new strategies so that your estate plan always reflects your needs and your current family structure.