Would your wishes survive your partner remarrying?

How would you feel about your partner marrying again after your death? Most of us, honestly, would want them to be happy. And how would you feel if, as a result, your children were disinherited? That part, nobody wants - and press stories of late-life remarriages that rewrote a family's inheritance appear with depressing regularity, including predatory marriages - the case of Joan Blass, a woman with dementia secretly married by a much younger man who stood to inherit everything, is the one that changed how many professionals think about this risk.

Why remarriage rewrites everything

Marriage automatically revokes an existing Will. If your widowed partner remarriesMarriage or civil partnership automatically revokes an existing Will. If your widowed partner remarries and does not make a new Will, the assets you left them pass under the intestacy rules - principally to the new spouse. Your children's inheritance depends entirely on events after your death that you cannot influence. We call it marriage-after-death risk: MAD.

The protection: an Estate Protection Trust

An Estate Protection Trust written into your Will ringfences your share. Your partner can benefit - typically including the right to remain in the family home - but the capital is held for your children and cannot be diverted by a remarriage or lost to a child's later divorce. What that protection is worth depends entirely on what happens after your death - it may never be called on, or it may be the only thing standing between your children and losing everything you left. For the families who typically use them, the amount protected runs well into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Not just for the wealthy

Trusts are increasingly used by ordinary families for exactly this reason: they are the only reliable way to deliver "partner first, then the children" - the most common wish in estate planning. Our related guides cover how this works for blended families in particular.

Key takeaways

• Remarriage revokes a Will and can silently redirect your entire estate
• A Trust protects your children's share while still providing for your partner
• This is standard planning for ordinary families, not exotic tax structuring

Ask a STEP-qualified estate planner whether an Estate Protection Trust fits your circumstances - complimentary and without obligation.