Remarriage during midlife, retirement, or later life can be an exciting new chapter. It can also make estate planning more complicated.

By this stage of life, each person may already have a home, retirement accounts, investments, adult children, an existing estate plan, or financial responsibilities from an earlier marriage. A new marriage brings those separate histories together—and Michigan law gives spouses certain rights that may not match what an older will, trust, or beneficiary designation says.

For someone getting married or remarried later in life, this is therefore an especially good time to review the entire estate plan rather than simply adding a new spouse's name to a document or two.

Remarriage among older Americans is not unusual. According to the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, the remarriage rate among previously married adults age 65 and older increased from 4.6 per 1,000 in 1990 to 5.1 per 1,000 in 2022. Adults 65 and older were the only age group whose remarriage rate increased over that period.

Why is estate planning different when you remarry later in life?

A couple marrying in their 50s, 60s, or 70s usually approaches marriage differently from a couple starting out together in their 20s.

Each spouse may already have accumulated significant assets. One or both may own a home. Retirement accounts may represent a large part of their wealth. There may be children and grandchildren from prior relationships. One person may want to provide financial security for a new spouse while also making certain that particular assets eventually pass to his or her own children.

Those objectives are often compatible—but they generally require deliberate planning.

The important question is not simply, “Who should inherit my property?” It may also be: What should my spouse have available during his or her lifetime, and what should happen to the property after both of us are gone?

What happens to an existing Michigan estate plan after remarriage?

An old estate plan should not simply be assumed to work after a new marriage.

Michigan law provides important rights to surviving spouses. For example, when someone signs a will and subsequently marries, Michigan's Estates and Protected Individuals Code provides certain rights for a surviving spouse unless one of the statutory exceptions applies. A surviving spouse may also have the right to elect against a will rather than simply accept its provisions.

That does not mean that a new marriage automatically rewrites every estate-planning document correctly. It means almost the opposite: the law may produce results that the couple never consciously selected.

A person entering a second marriage should therefore review his or her will, revocable living trust, deeds, retirement-account beneficiaries, life-insurance beneficiaries, powers of attorney, and health-care documents as a coordinated plan.

Who should own the home after a second marriage?

The home is often one of the most important estate-planning questions for couples marrying later in life.

Suppose one spouse owned the home before the marriage and wants the new spouse to be able to remain there if the homeowner dies first, but ultimately wants the property to pass to children from the first marriage.

There are several ways that objective might be addressed. Simply adding the new spouse to the deed may produce a very different result from leaving the house in trust for the spouse's benefit. Conversely, leaving the property entirely to children without considering the new spouse's rights can also create problems.

The statement sometimes heard that a spouse who is not on the deed has “no rights” to the house is too simple under Michigan law. How title is held determines ownership and can determine how property passes at death, but Michigan law also provides surviving spouses with rights in a deceased spouse's probate estate.

For a blended family, a trust can sometimes provide a useful middle ground. For example, the trust might permit the surviving spouse to live in the home while establishing who pays the taxes, insurance, repairs, and other expenses and what happens if the spouse moves out or the home needs to be sold. The property can then pass to the first spouse's children at the appropriate time.

The important point is that the deed and estate plan should be designed together.

How can you provide for both a new spouse and children from an earlier marriage?

This is one of the central estate-planning questions in many second marriages.

Leaving everything outright to the surviving spouse may be simple, but the first spouse to die then loses control over where those assets eventually go. The survivor may later change his or her estate plan, remarry, spend the assets, or leave them primarily to the survivor's own children.

At the other extreme, leaving everything immediately to children may fail to provide adequately for the surviving spouse.

A properly designed trust can sometimes balance those interests. Assets may be available for the surviving spouse during life while identifying who receives what remains after the surviving spouse's death.

Life insurance can also be useful in some situations. Instead of asking one asset to accomplish competing goals, insurance might provide for one group while other assets pass to another.

There is no single formula. The appropriate arrangement depends on the couple's assets, financial independence, family relationships, housing needs, and what each spouse wants to accomplish.

Should people remarrying consider a prenuptial agreement?

Sometimes.

A premarital agreement is not only a divorce-planning document. For couples marrying later in life, it can also coordinate with an estate plan by establishing what rights each person will have in the other's property at death.

Under Michigan's probate law, a surviving spouse can waive certain statutory inheritance rights by a written agreement signed after fair disclosure.

That can be particularly useful when both people have children from earlier marriages and agree that some property should remain separate.

The estate plan and premarital agreement should be coordinated. It makes little sense for one document to promise a particular result while another produces something different.

What happens to retirement accounts after remarriage?

Retirement accounts deserve separate attention because the rules do not always work like the rules governing a will or trust.

Many employer-sponsored retirement plans provide significant protections for spouses. In most 401(k) plans and certain other qualified plans, for example, the surviving spouse is generally entitled to the account at the participant's death unless the spouse has properly consented to another beneficiary. Traditional pension plans also frequently provide survivor benefits that can be waived only under specific procedures.

Different rules can apply to IRAs and other accounts.

The practical lesson is straightforward: do not assume that changing a will or trust changes a retirement-account beneficiary. Beneficiary designations should be reviewed individually and coordinated with the estate plan.

That is especially important after remarriage, when an old beneficiary form may still name a former spouse, children, or someone else.

Can remarriage affect Social Security benefits?

It can, depending on which benefit a person receives.

A person's own Social Security retirement benefit generally does not change simply because the person marries. But remarriage can affect divorced-spouse, survivor, and certain other benefits.

For example, a person receiving benefits as a divorced spouse generally loses those benefits upon remarriage. Different rules apply to survivor benefits: someone who remarries after age 60 may still be eligible for survivor benefits based on a deceased former spouse's earnings record.

For someone approaching or already in retirement, checking the effect of marriage on Social Security and any pension benefits before the wedding can prevent surprises.

Don't overlook incapacity planning after remarriage

Estate planning is about more than what happens at death.

A new spouse does not eliminate the need for properly drafted incapacity documents. In Michigan, a financial power of attorney identifies the person authorized to handle financial matters, while a patient advocate designation names the person authorized to make health-care decisions when the individual can no longer participate in those decisions. Michigan specifically requires a patient advocate to be designated in writing.

Someone entering a second marriage may still have documents naming a former spouse, an adult child, or another family member. The new spouse may—or may not—be the person the individual now wants making those decisions.

That choice should be deliberate rather than assumed.

How does remarriage affect long-term-care planning in Michigan?

This becomes increasingly relevant for people marrying at or near retirement.

Michigan Medicaid rules treat married couples differently from unmarried individuals in important respects. Michigan applies spousal-impoverishment rules intended to preserve certain resources for a spouse living in the community when the other spouse requires nursing-home care. Michigan also generally does not treat a transfer of resources from a Medicaid applicant to the applicant's spouse as a divestment.

Trust planning requires considerably more care. Transfers into certain irrevocable trusts can be treated as transfers for less than fair market value and fall within Medicaid's 60-month look-back period.

For that reason, a so-called Medicaid Asset Protection Trust should not be viewed as a routine addition to every later-life estate plan. It is a specialized planning technique whose usefulness depends on the circumstances and timing.

If long-term care is already a concern, changes in ownership or large transfers should be considered in light of both the estate plan and Michigan Medicaid rules.

A useful estate-planning checklist before or after remarriage

For someone marrying in midlife, retirement, or later life, I would ordinarily review the following together:

• the existing will and living trust;
• the deed to the home and other real estate;
• beneficiary designations on IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, life insurance, annuities, and payable-on-death accounts;
• financial powers of attorney and patient advocate designations;
• each person's plans for children from previous relationships;
• whether a premarital agreement is appropriate; and
• how possible future long-term-care needs fit into the overall plan.

The objective is not necessarily to create a complicated estate plan. It is to make sure that the documents, account titles, beneficiary designations, and each spouse's expectations all point in the same direction.

Estate planning for the second half of life

An estate plan that made sense at 40 may no longer fit at 60 or 70. Retirement, the death or divorce of a spouse, remarriage, changes in assets, adult children, grandchildren, and concerns about future incapacity or long-term care can all change what a good plan should accomplish.

Remarriage is therefore an appropriate time to look at the estate plan as a whole.

For Michigan residents entering a new marriage during midlife, retirement, or later life, the goal is not simply to sign new documents. It is to understand how marriage changes the legal and financial picture and put a plan in place that reflects the couple's actual circumstances.

At Andrew Byers, PLC in Troy, Michigan, I help individuals, couples, and families with estate planning for midlife, retirement, and later life, including planning involving remarriage, blended families, trusts, powers of attorney, beneficiary designations, and long-term-care concerns. Contact me at (248) 469-4261 or via the "contact us" form in the upper right.