> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://aarr.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Protect Where Your Money Goes When You Remarry After 60 - URL: https://aarr.org/remarrying-after-60-protect-estate-plan-heirs/ - Published: 2026-10-02T16:58:10.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-02T16:58:10.000Z - Description: If you are remarrying after 60, the law gives your new spouse rights to your property after you die. Here is how beneficiary forms, a prenuptial agreement, trusts, and a carefully written power of attorney can help keep your money going to the people you choose, even if you become unable to act. - Author: AARR Staff - Tags: News, Estate Planning ## Remarrying After 60 By the time you remarry after 60, you probably know where you want your money to go when you die, whether that is to your children, to your new spouse, or to some of each. Once you are married, state and federal law give your spouse rights to your property after you die. The steps below put your wishes into the documents the law recognizes, both for the time after your death and for any period when illness leaves you unable to act for yourself. ## Decide What Goes Where Start with a complete list of what each of you owns and how each item is titled, meaning whether it is held in one name or jointly. The list should cover savings and investment accounts, real estate, vehicles, and life insurance policies, along with any wills, trusts, and health directives. It helps sort out what may count as separate property under your state’s law and what becomes marital property after the wedding. Then decide who should receive each asset, and tell your partner and your heirs what you intend. ## Put the Beneficiary Forms in Order Retirement accounts and life insurance generally go to whoever is named on the beneficiary form on file with the institution, regardless of what a will or trust says. Transfer-on-death and pay-on-death designations on bank and investment accounts work the same way. Review every one of those forms, and after any change confirm with the plan administrator, insurer, or bank that it was recorded correctly. A workplace retirement plan needs extra care, because federal law requires most 401(k) plans to pay any balance remaining at your death to your surviving spouse unless your spouse has agreed in writing to a different beneficiary. If you want that money to go to your children, you will need your spouse’s written consent. A waiver signed in an agreement before the wedding may not be valid. ## Use a Prenuptial Agreement A prenuptial agreement lists each person’s assets and debts and says how they will be handled at death or divorce. It lets each of you give up the rights to certain assets that the law would otherwise give a surviving spouse. It can also settle what happens to your home by spelling out how long your spouse may live there after you die, who pays for upkeep, whether your spouse may buy it from your estate, and where your share of the proceeds goes if it is sold. In many states each of you must have a separate lawyer and fully disclose all assets and debts. Because beneficiary forms take precedence over a prenuptial agreement, review your insurance policies, retirement plans, and wills once the agreement is signed to make sure they match it. If you have already married, the same kind of agreement can be signed after the wedding, when it is called a post-nuptial agreement. ## Rewrite Your Will and Consider a Trust Have a new will drafted, because in some states a remarriage can partially or fully revoke a will written earlier. If you want to support your spouse for life and still have your children inherit, a qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust can do both. Your spouse receives the income from the trust for life, and whatever remains then passes to the people you named. A QTIP trust is irrevocable, which means it cannot be changed, and in most cases the surviving spouse is limited to the income and cannot reach the principal. It can also be named as the beneficiary of a retirement plan, although that takes specific legal language. If you already have trusts, check that the trustees are still the right people. ## Protect the Plan If You Become Unable to Act The plan you have made for after your death can still be altered while you are alive, if illness leaves someone else in charge of your finances. A financial power of attorney names an agent to handle the money matters you specify. Without one, a court may have to appoint someone to manage your affairs, and you may not get to choose who that is. You decide who your agent is and what the agent may do, and the agent does not have to be your spouse. Many people name a spouse or one or more of their children, according to the American Bar Association. Name one or more successor agents as well, in case your first choice cannot serve. The power of attorney defines the agent’s authority and any limits on it. An agent cannot revise your will, but an agent can affect who ends up with your property by changing how your assets are titled. Some states also let an agent create or amend a trust, and an agent may be able to make gifts on your behalf, subject to any guidelines you set in the document. Say clearly in the document whether you want your agent to have those powers. The rules differ by state. In Florida, for example, a power of attorney signed today lets an agent change a beneficiary designation, create or amend a trust, or make a gift only if you sign or initial next to that specific power. If your plan leaves certain property to your children, ask your attorney to write the power of attorney so that no agent, your spouse included, can retitle those assets, give them away, change their beneficiaries, or change a trust that holds them. A living trust may add security, because it can authorize a trustee you choose to manage the trust’s property for your benefit if you become incapacitated, without a court having to appoint a guardian. You can amend or revoke most living trusts at any time, while an irrevocable trust cannot be revoked or changed. Medical decisions are handled in a separate document, a health care proxy, which is sometimes called a medical power of attorney. Settle who holds it while you are both healthy, and tell your families what you decided. ## Who Can Help These documents have to agree with one another, because a prenuptial agreement that conflicts with a will or trust may take a lawsuit to enforce. An attorney experienced in both family issues and estate planning can draft them as a set. Review your accounts, beneficiary forms, and estate documents again after the wedding and after any other major change in your life.