Specifically, payments to a former spouse required under a divorce agreement constitute deductions for estate tax purposes. Less certain are payments to the children of a prior marriage. Ordinarily, these payments are not deductible because the children are the natural objects of a parent's bounty. Balancing Competing Interests . If there are children from a prior marriage, a parent must decide what portion of the estate should go to that person's current spouse and what portion should go to the children from the prior marriage.
Different considerations come into play depending on whether the children are minors or adults.
If the children are adults and the parent has a good relationship with them, the parent should consider telling the children what they are to receive under the estate plan. The planner and client should discuss the possibility of a premortem family conference of the kind that is discussed later in this article. If adult children do not have a good relationship with the parent, the issue becomes whether the parent is going to bequeath anything to those children. It may not be a winning strategy for a parent to leave a minuscule amount, accompanied by a certain level of vicissitude. If the client is making a more substantial bequest, then the bequest should be made with no editorializing and accompanied by an in terrorem clause.