I’m pleased to announce that my latest book my ninth book, is out. Yours, Mine & Ours: Estate Planning for People in Blended or Stepfamilies (Paul Hood Services 2022) is the second book in my Planning Your Future series. As of now, I envision the series to grow to five books. My next book will be about the unique estate planning challenges that committed couples who opt to not get legally married face, which I hope to write this year and get out around the beginning of next year. Since the U.S. 2010 Census, the unmarried couples segment has been the fastest growing segment of the population.

Planning Your Future Series

The last two books in the series, which could expand past five books if I find future inspiration, will be a complementary tandem books, one on what I call the “bricks” of estate planning, i.e., the quantitative side-the tools and techniques of estate planning, e.g., wills, trusts, powers of attorney, LLCs, joint tenancy, etc., and another book on what I call the “mortar” of estate planning, i.e., the qualitative or what I usually call the “human side” of estate planning, e.g., things like intergenerational communication, expectations, birth order, trust, respect, checks and balances, etc. There’s a model that appears on page XIII of Yours, Mine & Ours that depicts the “bricks” and “mortar” and the mission-critical importance of having both. In fact, an estate plan constructed solely of bricks without the necessary mortar will topple at the first tension. Of course, all of the books will be written from my vantagepoint as a “purposeful estate planner,” just like the first two books.

Let me thank a few people. First, and foremost, I thank Almighty God. I also want to thank all of the good folks at Bublish, my book shepherds. From Kathy to Nick to Shilah to Katherine to Eunice. And others. Thanks!!! I also wanted to acknowledge a few very loving and supportive souls who mean the world to me. First and foremost, Carol. But also my former roomy, Kelly and her bestie, who’s part of our pack, Amanda. I love y’all.

Table of Contents

This is the table of contents of Yours, Mine & Ours, which is available in hardback, paperback and electronic versions, including Kindle:

Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Part 1: The Basics
Chapter 1 Working with Estate Planners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2 The Human Side of Estate Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 3 Basic Estate Planning Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 4 Property Ownership: Means and Issues . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 5 Types of Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter 6 Estate Planning Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Part 2: Blended-Family Considerations
Chapter 7 The Estate Planning Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 8 Reasons Estate Plans Fail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Part 3: Blended-Family Estate Planning Technique Issues
Chapter 9 Lifetime Estate Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Chapter 10 Testamentary Estate Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
Chapter 11 Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Chapter 12 Last Words of Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Part I focuses on the basics of estate planning. In Part II, I tackle planning issues that impact families. Part III offers observations and suggestions based
on my years of experience working with blended-family estate planning technique issues.

This book is not an introduction to estate planning (although I’ve certainly explained many of the basics). There are plenty of books that explain estate
planning at varying levels of complexity. The appendix to this book contains a list of recommended books on general estate planning.

The purpose of this book is to address in detail the nuances—the mortar—of estate planning and to help you meet your goals, address your concerns, and tackle your particular issues with your estate planner. Communication is the key to good estate planning.

Why I Wrote This Book

I became acutely aware of the maddening difficulties that blended-family couples and partners had in estate planning very early in my estate planning career, which has spanned almost thirty-five years. I noticed that blended-family couples and partners faced issues that single-relationship couples and partners didn’t face.

I also noticed that the estate planning community hadn’t devoted as much focused study on estate planning for blended-family couples and partners. In
mainstream press, there are fewer than five books on the subject, and for estate planning professionals, only a couple of books exist.

I first began studying, speaking, and writing about the unique and challenging issues in estate planning for blended-family couples and partners over
twenty-five years ago. I have written articles on this subject for professional estate planning publications and have presented at meetings and conferences
(as well as several webinars). Why, you ask?

For starters, I wanted to help blended-family couples and partners. I consistently have found that blended-family couples and partners were my most challenging clients because of the emotional and legal issues that they face. Richard Barnes, who also authored a book on this subject years ago, described estate planning for blended-family couples and partners as “relationships squared.” He’s absolutely right. The fact that little attention had been devoted to this difficult subject significantly motivated me.

And then life happened. To me.

I got divorced and remarried and had my own blended family. Now I was personally facing the same gnarly issues that my blended-family clients had
faced, and resolution wasn’t any easier, which further motivated me to write this book.

In short, I’m one of my audience. I faced these issues and problems myself. I wrote this book for us. I used my personal and professional estate planning
experience to write a practical and helpful book that fills an inexplicable gap in guidance on the perplexing difficulties that blended-family couples and
partners face. My book is effectively the second book on this subject, and the other book was written in 2009.

I’ll close this blog with the dedication in Yours, Mine & Ours:

This book is dedicated to you and to all who strive mightily for the “good estate planning result.” I’m inspired by you. Always give them your best.

I hope that you like the book and would love your feedback. My e-mail address is paul@paulhoodservices.com.