My father was executor of the will for a close family friend who was a widower who remarried. There was a financial imbalance in that his assets greatly outweighed hers, basically she brought no assets into the marriage. They were retirement age when they married, so she didn’t contribute at all to the creation of his wealth.
The way things were set up was that she would be taken care of after he predeceased her, until either the end of her life, or she remarried, She could stay in their shared home for as long as she wanted unless she remarried. She outlived him and had a good life for the remaining of her years, but once she passed, the house and all remaining assets were passed onto his kids. Her adult children didn’t seem to know that so they were a bit shocked.
ETA, he wasn’t stingy with her when he was alive, he paid her way for all the trips etc, unlike the OP of the column question. The entire point of remarrying is to enjoy your twilight years, it isn’t like the children inherited less than they would have if their mother had lived.
Yup.
My grandma died and my grandpa married less than a year later.
My grandparents were pretty poor when their kids were growing up, but grandpa built a successful business, and when he retired he was worth about $1M.
(Which is/was a TON of money when he died.)
He and grandma got to traveling - African safari, Bahamas, even a trip to Europe.
He had a trust and will written out that had two different sections - the trust that would go to the girls, and the trust that would go to the boys (much larger, of course, because: sexism).
When he remarried, he kept traveling, and some of his kids were PISSED that he would dare to go to the Bahamas with his new wife. Um, I said "it's HIS money??" I mean, at that point, even my 12 yo self knew that. Grandpa was in his 60s and his kids were all 30's and 40's.
Grandpa and new wife were married for 16 years. Eventually, the Bahamas trips turned into bus trips because they got too old to really fly and it was easier for them. Grandpa lived to be 85 or 86. He had changed his will and trust to say that when he died, his wife could live off the interest of the trusts, and even hit the principal if needed.
Man, a couple of uncles were PISSED. WHEN DO I GET MY MONEY. For shit's sake, you guys are in your 60s. Get over it. I secretly wished my step-grandma a long and healthy life.
She lived to be 97. She lived another 18 years after my grandpa. Outlived my mom and an aunt. Ha, so there!
(After my grandfather died, she moved out of the house and back into her own one, that she had kept. That lady raised 12 kids on her own. She also had a pension from being a librarian.)
TLDR, it's his money. Nobody is owed an inheritance, but if you want to leave your kids something, by all means put some money in a trust.
