Legal-Ease: In-laws in the will?

Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.

A question that often comes up in estate planning is how in-laws should be treated, especially daughters-in-law and sons-in-law. This should be addressed in each individual situation as there’s not an easy answer to the in-law question in estate planning. Some things to consider are whether this is the first marriage for the spouses, how long the couple has been together and if there are kids from previous relationships. Most often people do not include their in-laws in their estate planning as they prefer their family assets to stay within the family.

I have five brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law, each of whom married one my siblings. Even though I love those in-laws now, I did not really know them before my brother or sister married each of them. Essentially, I love them largely because my siblings love them.

Our biological or adopted family is what it is. Unfortunately, due to divorce or other unforeseen circumstances, in-laws may come or go throughout our lifetimes.

Read more about considerations on whether or not to include in-laws in estate planning in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: In-laws in the will?

Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: In-laws in the will?” by Lee R. Schroeder, July 9, 2016

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