The Estate of The Union Podcast – Probate Challenges Facing Texas Blended Families is out now.
Blended families are everywhere. He has his kids, she has her kids, and together you’ve built a life — a home, a marriage, maybe even a few more kids along the way. It’s one of the most common family structures we see walk through our doors. It’s also one of the most common ways an estate plan goes sideways.
In this episode of Estate of the Union, host Zach Wiewel sits down with Ann Lumley, Director of Probate and Trust Administration at Texas Trust Law, to talk through what happens to a blended family’s assets when there’s no plan in place — and why “just leaving everything to my spouse” often isn’t the safety net people think it is.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Zach and Ann walk through the real-world surprises blended families run into during probate, including:
- What happens with no will at all. In Texas, dying without a will means the state’s intestacy laws decide who inherits — and for blended families, that often means a surviving spouse unexpectedly co-owns the family home with their stepchildren.
- Community property vs. separate property. The hosts break down how Texas law treats property acquired during a marriage differently from property owned before it, and why that distinction can determine whether your spouse or your children end up with the house.
- The “probate right to occupy.” Even when a surviving spouse doesn’t legally own the home, Texas law generally won’t let stepchildren force them out — but it can create a messy, ongoing question of who pays the taxes, the mortgage, and the repairs.
- Adoption and inheritance surprises. Stepchildren who were never formally adopted have no automatic inheritance rights under intestacy law — while a biological child given up for adoption years ago may still be legally entitled to inherit, whether anyone remembers them or not.
- The “Bambi” problem. Ann and Zach use a (only slightly exaggerated) example to explain why leaving everything outright to a surviving spouse — a so-called “I love you will” — can unintentionally disinherit your own children if that spouse later remarries.
- Remarriage protection (QTIP trusts). A planning tool that lets a surviving spouse use the couple’s assets for life, while guaranteeing that what’s left ultimately goes to the children of the spouse who died first — not to a new spouse down the road.
- Commingling and divorce risk. How an inheritance left “outright” to a child can lose its separate-property protection over time, and why many parents instead use separate share trusts to keep a child’s inheritance protected in the event of a future divorce or lawsuit.
- Prenups and postnups. How these agreements can define separate versus community property in advance and even address homestead rights before they ever become a dispute.
- Stepped-up basis and taxes. A look at how the tax treatment of inherited property differs for separate versus community property, and why that distinction can mean a real difference in capital gains taxes down the road.
- Guardianship for minor children. Why an ex-spouse — not a stepparent — typically has the first legal right to raise the kids if something happens to their biological parent, regardless of how involved that ex-spouse has been.
- Dependent vs. independent administration. Why dying without a will and with minor children can trigger a court-supervised probate process that’s slower, more expensive, and harder on the family than a properly drafted plan would have been.
- Beneficiary designations. A simple reminder that forgetting to update a 401(k) or life insurance beneficiary after a divorce or remarriage can send that money straight to an ex-spouse — no matter what your will says.
If you’re remarried, planning to remarry, or have a mix of “his kids, her kids, and their kids,” this episode highlights the planning tools that can help avoid unintended — and often painful — consequences.
In each episode of The Estate of The Union podcast, hosts and lawyers Zach Wiewel and Brad Wiewel will give valuable insights into the confusing world of estate planning, making an often daunting subject easier to understand. It is Estate Planning Made Simple! The Estate of The Union Podcast – Probate Challenges Facing Texas Blended Families is out now.
The episode can be found on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. If you would prefer to watch the video version, please visit our YouTube page. Please click on the links to listen to or watch the new installment of The Estate of The Union podcast. We hope you enjoy it.
Texas Trust Law focuses its practice exclusively in the area of wills, probate, estate planning, asset protection, and special needs planning. Brad Wiewel is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. We provide estate planning services, asset protection planning, business planning, and retirement exit strategies.
This information is NOT intended to be used as legal or tax advice, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with Texas Trust Law or any of its attorneys. Please contact your own appropriate advisors to discuss the benefits and effects of any particular legal, charitable & tax strategy.