Recently Married...

[lukeroberts]

Virginia. I am recently married to a wife with assets (stocks, mut funds) in the 500K range. No kids (yet). She has a will that predates our marriage by 10 years which essentially give all of her estate to her brother. Question is: God forbid if something were to happen to her, would her bro still inherit the assests. Do we need to go through the expense of drawing up a new will(s), or will VA community property laws control the estate and pass it to me?

 

[seniorjudge]

Q: Do we need to go through the expense of drawing up a new will(s) and otherwise adequately plan our estate(s).

A: Yes. Yesterday is too late so hurry.


BTW, to my knowledge, you cannot disinherit your spouse in Virginia; but there would be one heck of a fight if she keels over tonight.

 

[divgradcurl]

Just to supplement SJ's response,

a) VA is not a community property state, it's a separate property state;

b) A will drawn up before a marriage is still a valid will, but the surviving spouse will be able to claim an intestate share of the estate if they are not in the will (they are a pretermitted spouse).

 

[lukeroberts]

thanks for the replies.

 

[seniorjudge]

thanks for the replies.

You are welcome.