Life interest trusts are a popular strategy for blended families in estate planning, but it is important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all.

What is a blended family? A blended family in relation to estate planning is one in which a testator or the spouse of the testator has been involved in a previous relationship and a child or children has been born of that relationship.

Examples of blended families include:

• a husband and wife marry for the second (or subsequent) time, both have children from their first marriages and then they have two more children;

• a widow, with children, marries for a second (or subsequent) time and has another child with her new husband; and

• a husband and wife do not divorce, but the husband enters into a de facto relationship and has a child outside the marriage

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