Getting remarried? Understand your spouse’s inheritance rights

Description

Abstract: Individuals getting remarried may have very different expectations than they did when they married the first time, especially when it comes to estate planning. For example, a person may feel that his or her new spouse should have more limited rights to assets than those of a spouse in the first marriage. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t see it that way. In nearly every state, a person’s spouse has certain property rights that apply regardless of the terms of the estate plan. This article details a spouse’s inheritance rights. A brief sidebar discusses how living in a community property state changes a spouse’s property rights.