Your marriage gives you the opportunity to share a lot of things with someone you love including assets accumulated as a couple. Discussing the fate of these shared benefits can play a major role in the determining structure of your estate plan in Texas.
As your life progresses, you and your spouse may change your mind about the strategies you use to distribute your assets. Making formal changes to your estate planning documents can guarantee the execution of your estate in compliance with your end-of-life wishes.
Defining marital property
Throughout your marriage, you have the option of deciding whether or not to share certain assets or maintain independent ownership of them. Examples of assets you may consider sharing include the following:
- Vehicles
- Insurance policies
- Property
- Retirement accounts
- Investments
- Cash
Even though you may have some of each of these assets, you may not own all of them jointly with your spouse. However, it is still wise to include information about each of these assets in your estate plan. List all of the assets you or your spouse own, either jointly or independently, and what you want to become of them after you die.
Protecting loved ones
Your estate plan will look different if you have children versus not having children. It will also look different if you have dependents still at home or are the primary caretaker for a disabled loved one. According to The Motley Fool, assessing your family dynamic and identifying the people you want to protect can help you make smart decisions about the outcome of your assets.