Category Archives: Marriage & Divorce

Remarried after having kids? Here are tips to avoid accidentally disinheriting them – CNBC

  Marriage & Divorce

If you’ve tied the knot again and hope to pass on assets to your kids from a previous marriage, don’t overlook the importance of planning for when you pass away.

Many people lack even a basic will and the stakes can be higher if you do no estate planning when you remarry. As a result, your children could unintentionally be disinherited.

“A conversation about estate planning is absolutely critical in remarriages,” said certified financial planner Lili Vasileff, founder and president of Divorce and Money Matters in Greenwich, Connecticut. “It’s emotional and hard to talk about, but the last thing you want to do is leave adult kids with a disaster.”

Roughly 17 percent of people remarry after the first one ends from divorce or death of the spouse, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau. And although the rate of remarriage has dropped over time for most age groups, it’s higher among the 55-and-older crowd: 57 percent in 2013 versus 42 percent in 1960.

The older you are when you remarry, the more likely it is that you’re bringing assets into the marriage — retirement savings, life insurance policies, brokerage accounts, real estate and the like. There often can be family heirlooms or other belongings you might want to ensure end up with your children.

This is when estate planning helps avoid family conflict, experts say.

“When I talk with older couples who are remarrying, I ask them, ‘if you’re both on a boat and it goes down, can you trust the two sides of the families to get together and do what you wanted?'” Vasileff said.

If you die without a will — called dying intestate — the courts in your state will decide who gets what.

That process is public and often messy if would-be heirs have competing priorities and conflicting notions of what is rightfully theirs.

“You don’t want to leave it to the state,” said Melissa Brennan, a CFP and senior financial planner with CFO4Life in Richardson, Texas. “It can be a long drawn-out procedure that no one wants to go through.”

While every situation is different and some can be more complex than others, here are some key things to consider when contemplating how to make sure your heirs end up with the assets you want them to.

One easily overlooked item after people remarry is updating beneficiaries on retirement accounts, life insurance policies and the like. Whoever is listed as a beneficiary will get that money when you die. That designation supersedes any intention stated in your will.

“No amount of estate planning can fix having the wrong beneficiary listed,” said DeDe Jones, a CFP and managing director at Innovative Financial in Lakewood, Colorado.

In other words, if you named your ex-spouse as the beneficiary on your life insurance policy, guess who gets the money.

Additionally, 401(k) plan rules dictate that your current spouse must be the beneficiary unless he or she legally agrees not to.

This means that if he’s your listed beneficiary and you predecease him, those 401(k) assets become his to do with as he wants, which might not include passing them on to your kids. Same goes for other accounts for which he is the beneficiary and, typically, those on which he is a joint owner.

For example, say someone has $500,000 in a non-retirement account and adds his new wife to his account with rights to full ownership upon his death.

“If his intention was to leave part of that to his kids, he didn’t do that,” Brennan said.

Often, remarriage involves a jointly owned home. Depending on the laws of your state and how the property is titled, your desire for your children to inherit your share of it could be upended.

In most states, if it is deeded as “joint tenancy with right of survivorship” or “tenancy by the entirety,” the property automatically belongs to the surviving spouse, no matter what your will says. If you own the house in “tenancy in common,” you can leave your share to someone other than your spouse if you choose.

However, some states have different rules. Moreover, there can be other considerations when it comes to how a house is titled, including protection from potential creditors or for tax reasons later when the home is sold.

That makes it important to consult with professionals before making a decision.

If you want your children to receive particular items when you pass away, it’s important to be as specific as possible in your will so there is no room for interpretation.

“The more particular you are, the better,” Vasileff said.

If you want your kids to receive money but don’t want to give a young adult — or one prone to poor money management — unfettered access to a sudden windfall, you can consider creating a trust to be the beneficiary of a particular asset.

A trust holds assets on behalf of your beneficiary or beneficiaries, and is a legal entity dictated by the documents creating it. If you go that route, the assets go into the trust instead of directly to your heirs. They can only receive money according to how (or when) you’ve stipulated in the trust documents.

“The trust distributes money based on any criteria you decide,” said Jones, of Innovative Financial.

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Experts often recommend discussing your goals with not only your spouse, but your children as well. While you don’t necessarily need to go into dollar amounts, managing expectations can help avoid discord between your partner and your children.

“If your kids or spouse don’t know what to expect when you die, there can be a lot of conflict,” Brennan said. “I’m a big believer in getting all the information out there.”

First up is choosing someone to handle your finances if you reach a point where you cannot.

When you give someone durable power of attorney for your finances, that person will be in charge of paying bills and filing tax returns, for example.

You also should give someone durable power of attorney over health care. That lets the designee make important health-care decisions if you cannot.

This is separate from a living will, which states your wishes if you are on life support or suffer from a terminal condition. This helps guide your proxy’s decision-making. And if you have no one named, medical personnel must follow your wishes in that document.

While creating an estate plan might not seem appealing or fun, the process can help ensure that your assets end up where you want and your wishes are carried out.

“It comes down to doing some visualization that people don’t like to do — imagining themselves no longer alive,” Jones said.

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Call the Midwife's Victoria Yeates shares baby advice for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – HELLO! Magazine

  Marriage & Divorce

victoria yeates

Prince Harry and Meghan are due to welcome their first child in Spring


hellomagazine.com


She is known for her role as Sister Winifred in BBC drama Call the Midwife, so it’s hardly surprising Victoria Yeates is knowledgeable when it comes to babies. During a chat with HELLO! at the Cirque Du Soleil: TOTEM launch on Wednesday, the 35-year-old revealed her top advice for parents-to-be Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to get a sleep trainer! “My advice, well this is from my friends, they [should] probably get a sleep trainer,” she shared. “Get a sleep trainer to get the baby to not wake up before 8am.”

Victoria Yeates has shared some great baby advice

Victoria, who married her musician partner Paul Housden in June, joined the third series of the BBC period drama in 2014 but left last year before landing a role in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Speaking about her departure, the actress shared: “It was the right time. Fantastic Beasts came along and you just have to follow where the work goes. That door opened and I couldn’t do both.”

MORE: 10 times Prince Harry has treated pregnant Meghan Markle like a queen that she is

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“I was over the moon,” she added when asked what it was like to bag the Hollywood gig. “I was shell-shocked. The audition process was so full on. It was this big thing with a lot of people that have to sign off on you. But when you do something like that, especially if your character is going to go on – and working with the people that you are working with… you get there and it’s like a city.” She added: “Call the Midwife prepared me really well. As soon as you’re on set and working, everything then moves apart, it falls away.”

MORE: Call the Midwife’s Victoria Yeates talks mum’s ‘traumatic’ stroke

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Sa Re Ga Ma Pa: Baba Ramdev's marriage advice to Aditya Narayan will leave you amused – India Today

  Marriage & Divorce

Ramdev recently shot for an episode of Zee TV’s singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. He engaged in some fun games and activities while on the set, read a statement.

He was asked to give some marriage advice to the show’s host Aditya.

“All the famous people in this world are unmarried. I have become a big yoga celebrity and I am unmarried too! Hence, I would say that Aditya should never get married,” the yoga guru quipped.

Baba Ramdev also doled out some weight loss tips for singer Sonu Gill. She decided to come up on stage and asked Baba Ramdev for some weight loss tips for Sonu. Being the sport that he is, Baba Ramdev immediately went up on stage and demonstrated the Kapalbhati asana and also advised him to drink a lot of warm water.

A still from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

Further, he also advised show’s contestant Ishita Vishwakarma to drink Giloy ka Kaadha for her cold and cough.

The contestants made the evening truly a fun-filled one with their beautiful and power-packed performances. Tanmay Chaturvedi’s performance to the song Show Me Your Jalwa left mentor Richa Sharma mesmerised. Ishita’s melodious performance to the popular track Jag Ghomeya urged mentor Shekhar Ravjiani to go on stage and perform with her. Moreover, Baba Ramdev sang Yeh desh Mere Kann Mein Hai along with the contestants.

Best Disney Secrets And Insider Tips From The Experts – Forbes

  Marriage & Divorce

From Peru, Desiree F. is a new member of the Disney Mom’s Panel and an expert on everything Disney.Photo courtesy of Desiree F.

Are you Disney obsessed? Every year, thousands upon thousands of Disney buffs compete for their dream job: a spot on the Disney Parks Moms Panel, a group of experts who field questions from travelers and share their insider advice on the parks, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club and more. Despite the name, this role is not just open to women — or moms, for that matter. The competition to get one of the coveted spots on the panel is stiff, with multiple rounds of questions, interviews and even a video application.

For the winners, the job comes with a great deal of responsibility, despite the fact that there’s no pay. There are mandatory training sessions, and panelists are asked to answer about 10 to 20 questions per week. But the perks are pretty sweet: Each panelist receives a free trip to Walt Disney World Resort with up to three guests. Panelists may also be invited to participate in other events throughout their one-year role. And after the first year, they are invited to return as alumni panelists.

Disney recently announced the results of its 12th annual search for experts to be on its Disney Parks Moms Panel. This year, 12 new members — mostly women, a couple men — made the cut and will join 28 returning panelists. We caught up with a handful of the women who won a spot on the 2019 panel and found out what their qualifications were, as well as their top Disney tips.

So whether you’re looking for budgeting advice (one panelist is an expert), have questions about dining in the parks or want to plan a cruise, these insiders have the answers to anything and everything Disney. A note: Disney does not release the last names of the panelists.

READ MORE: “The 38 Cheapest Places To Travel In 2019.”

Amy M., a new member of the Disney Mom’s Panel.Photo courtesy of Amy M.

Who: Amy M.

Qualifications: This high school journalism teacher from Irmo, South Carolina with three kids is an expert on Walt Disney World Resort. “I first experienced the magic of Walt Disney World Resort in 1983 when my maternal grandparents took me and my cousin on an epic road trip to celebrate the recently-opened Epcot,” she says. Now, she and her husband and daughter are Annual Passholders and make the seven-hour drive to Orlando at least every other month.

Top Tip: “Making the most of your Walt Disney World vacation involves a lot of planning. From making dining reservations 180 days in advance to booking your FastPass+ experiences 30-60 days before your trip, having a solid game plan can make your vacation experience that much more enjoyable. That said, it’s also important to be flexible. Don’t be too upset when things don’t go according to plan — just go with the flow and enjoy it as much as you can.”

Rayna C. is from Wesley Chapel, Florida and a expert on Disney Vacation Club.Photo courtesy of Rayna C.

Who: Rayna C.

Qualifications: An anesthesiologist specializing in obstetrics by day, Rayna is her friends’ and family’s official Disney vacation planner by night. From Wesley Chapel, Florida, this mom of five is an expert on Disney Vacation Club Resorts. “We joined Disney Vacation Club the first Christmas after we were married when we took our two oldest children to Disney World as a Christmas surprise,” she says. “Staying on property, with the flexibility to fit our family’s style and budget, was a no-brainer.”

Top Tip: “Take advantage of the full kitchens in the villas. It’s a great way to save money as well as deal with the picky eaters in the family. Make your life even easier by ordering your groceries ahead online and have the food delivered straight to your resort.”

Angie G. is an expert on Disney Cruise Line.Photo courtesy of Angie G.

Who: Angie G.

Qualifications: From Cottage Grove, Minnesota, Angie G. is a business analyst with a technology company by trade, but a Disney Cruise Line enthusiast by heart. “We took our first Disney Cruise when our youngest was four and after that first pirate night we knew we would be Castaways for life,” says this mom of two. “We have set a goal to experience each itinerary that Disney Cruise Line has to offer as a family no matter how long it may take us.”

Top Tip: “One evening during your cruise, surprise your pirate crew with some milk and cookies before bed. Order them from room service before you leave for dinner and your show and they will be waiting for you when you return.”

Samantha K. in the Magic Kingdom.Photo courtesy of Samantha K.

Who: Samantha K.

Qualifications: This former elementary school teacher from Allison Park, Pennsylvania is currently a stay-at-home-mom of two. She is an expert on navigating Disney Parks and Resorts with a child with special needs. “My son has autism, and we are always so appreciative of how easy the Walt Disney World Resort makes it to vacation with someone who has special needs,” she says.

Top Tip: “Start your Walt Disney World theme park days early.  You can experience quite a few attractions in the first few hours after rope drop when the parks are at their least crowded. To get a head-start on the fun, you may even want to book an early breakfast reservation at a restaurant inside the park, prior to park opening.”

From Peru, Desiree F. is an expert on Walt Disney World Resort.Photo courtesy of Desiree F.

Who: Desiree F.

Qualifications: This Peru-based mom of three is a middle school Language Arts and Humanities teacher at the International American School of Lima. She speaks Spanish, English and French and is an expert on international travel questions when it comes to Walt Disney World Resort. “As soon as I walk into Epcot, my family knows that I basically run off to go use my multi-language skills in the different pavilions, especially with folks from France, Mexico and Canada,” she says. “I’m overwhelmed every time by Disney’s multiculturalism and diversity.”

Top Tip: “When celebrating a special occasion, make sure to pick up a button that’s shows the celebration at your resort hotel or in the parks at Guest Services. Cast Members may work some extra magic if they see you wearing the buttons.”

Kristin C. is an expert on Disneyland Resort in California.Photo courtesy of Carole Edelhauser

Who: Kristin C.

Qualifications: This freelance writer and editor from Trabuco Canyon, California started her journalism career working in TV news, then moved into print and online writing. An Annual Passholder for nearly 20 years, Kristin has three kids under age seven and lives under an hour from Disneyland Resort. “When it comes to helping others get the most out of their Disneyland Resort vacations, I especially love helping friends and family traveling with young children,” she says. “I consider myself a pro at utilizing the Baby Centers and navigating the parks with littles.”

Top Tip: “Utilize the Baby Care Centers — parents and caregivers with youngsters will want to take advantage of the Baby Care Centers located at both parks. Purchase baby necessities, feed and change babies, or just take a break with your little ones in a calm environment.”

Jessica B. is an expert on Walt Disney World Resort.Photo courtesy of Brandy Bocchino

Who: Jessica B.

Qualifications: A personal stylist, Canada-born Jessica B. lives with her husband and two rescue pets in Austin, Texas. “Walt Disney World has been a fixture in my life since I was nine months old and had my picture taken on my dad’s shoulders in front of Cinderella Castle,” she says. She also honeymooned at Walt Disney World Resort.

Top Tip: “There are lots of fun things for grown-ups to do at Walt Disney World. Jellyrolls at Disney’s BoardWalk is a dueling piano bar exclusively for guests 21 and over to sing their hearts out to everything from Disney songs to Top 40 hits. There isn’t anything these guys don’t know. I haven’t ever seen them stumped by a request.”

Anne Marie R. in Epcot.Photo courtesy of Anne Marie R.

Who: Anne Marie R.

Qualifications: This mom of four from Grayslake, Illinois is a math instructor at a community college. She’s also an expert on Walt Disney World Resort and squeezing the most magic from your vacation budget. “I have been planning Walt Disney World vacations for my family and others for over 25 years,” she says.

Top Tip: “Plan breaks during your vacation. I like to leave the parks mid-afternoon for some relaxation time; perhaps a quiet lunch and some pool time. I feel like I get more out of my vacation this way. Also, there is so much to see and do beyond the theme parks. Spa experiences, water sports, horseback riding and bike rentals are just a few.”

Eean K. is a Walt Disney World Resort expert.Photo courtesy of Eean K.

Who: Eean K.

Qualifications: A former elementary school teacher, this stay-at-home mom of three boys from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been going to Disney since she was young. “My first trip to Walt Disney World was in 1980 with my parents and grandparents. It’s hard to imagine a time before Epcot existed,” says this expert, who also honeymooned at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort.

Top Tip: “If you have a must-do FastPass+ or Dining Reservation for your trip, plan to do it the last day of your vacation. It’s always easier to snag those coveted “hard-to-get” reservations at the end of your trip, and it’s great to have something fantastic to look forward to.”

READ MORE:

• “Quit Your Job And Live Abroad in 2019: 10 Places So Cheap You Might Not Need to Work.”

• “The 38 Cheapest Places To Travel In 2019.”

• “Airport And Airline Hacks: 9 Ways To Travel Like A Pro”

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