Austin Texas Family Law Blog

Many adults don't have an estate plan in place for their loved ones to follow. Unfortunately, this means that their loved ones will have to guess about what they would have wanted. Their assets will be divided according to the state's intestate laws, which might not be what the decedent wanted.

For individuals who have already taken the time to create an estate plan, remembering to review it periodically is important. This is a chance to ensure that it still reflects their wishes and that everything is in order. There are some specific life events that should trigger a review. These include:

• You get married or divorced
• You lose someone who was in your estate plan
• You have a new child or grandchild
• Your children reach adulthood
• You move to a new state
• You acquire more assets
• You get rid of assets
• Tax laws that apply to your estate plan change

Many of our closest family ties these days are with people who aren't biologically related to us. It's common for marriage to bring not only a spouse but stepchildren, for example.

While the relationships between stepparents and stepchildren have been portrayed in everything from fairytales to reality TV as fraught with tension, that's often not the case. In fact, you may have formed a tight bond with your stepchildren and feel that you helped raise them – particularly if your spouse's ex lives far away or just isn't a big part of their kids' lives any longer.

These days, you don't hear as much about marital abandonment as you used to back when most wives were financially dependent on their husbands. However, it can still occur. Marital abandonment is when spouse leaves their husband or wife (and sometimes children), severing all ties and financial obligations to their family. In some cases, they work to ensure that they can't be located.

To be considered potentially criminal, this abandonment is done without "just cause." On the other hand, if a wife leaves and doesn't tell her husband where she's going because she's the victim of domestic violence or if a husband leaves because his wife's drinking has made being in the home intolerable, that's known as "constructive abandonment."

When parents divorce, they often find themselves in need of a nanny for the first time. If you and your spouse are sharing custody of your children, it's typically best to find a nanny who can work in both of your homes rather than have a different one for each home.

It's also best for the two of you to choose a nanny together, to work out their schedule and determine how their fee will be divided. If you're already having a mediated divorce, you may want to include the decisions around the nanny in your mediation. Even if you aren't, you may to work out your nanny issues via mediation.