In this article, you can discover… The value and importance of estate planning for unmarried couples. Legal protections to have in place to protect your shared life. How an attorney can help unmarried couples better plan for the future. What Makes Estate Planning For Unmarried Pennsylvania Couples Especially Important? It has always been important for unmarried couples to plan their estate carefully. And while Pennsylvania law makes provisions to ensure a surviving husband or wife is cared for (even if there was no estate plan in place), no such legal protections exist for unmarried partners. Cohabitation agreements can help answer these questions. These are legally binding documents for unmarried couples that help define financial responsibilities, property rights, and what should happen to assets if the couple splits up or one partner passes away. Think of it as a prenuptial for an unmarried couple. I’ve helped…Read More
In this article, you can discover… The biggest challenges faced by blended families when estate planning. The role of prenuptial agreements in blended families’ estate plans. How an attorney can help ensure your estate plans are fair to all children. What Are The Biggest Challenges Blended Families Tend To Face When Estate Planning? One of the toughest aspects of estate planning for blended families is often simply talking about your estate plans. Family dynamics, hard questions, and the practical challenges of fairly dividing up your estate can make it difficult to begin these conversations. When I work with blended families, I start by helping couples articulate their expectations, which I can use as a basis to create tailored, formal documents. Remember, the worst thing you can do if you’re in a blended family is to do nothing and make no estate plans. If you’ve been…Read More
In this article, you can discover… The key legal differences between kinship adoption and guardianship. How parental rights differ in guardianship vs. kinship adoption. How to know whether guardianship or kinship adoption is the right choice. What Are The Key Legal Differences Between Kinship Adoption, Foster Care, And Guardianship? An adoption, whether it’s kinship, agency, or stepparent adoption, always involves terminating the biological parents’ rights and creating a new legal family relationship. In contrast, foster care is usually a temporary arrangement, often overseen by an agency, where a family or individual cares for a child without gaining legal parental rights. Foster parents provide care while the agency works with the biological parents to either help them improve their situation or make decisions about terminating their parental rights and possibly moving forward with adoption. Kinship adoption differs significantly from foster care because it legally establishes the…Read More
In this article, you can discover… The emotions that come with stepparent adoption. How attorney Deborah Lesko supports stepparents who are nervous about the process. How children are involved in the stepparent adoption process. What Inspires Families To Begin The Journey Of Stepparent Adoption? In most stepparent adoptions, the journey begins because the stepparent has already found themselves stepping into that parenting role and filling a gap that was left by an absent biological parent. For example, let’s say a biological mother has two children from a previous relationship and later marries. If the biological father has abandoned the children (providing no contact, no support, and no presence), then the stepfather often becomes the one who provides that love, structure, and support over the years. Other times, the stepparent has been in the child’s life since they were two or three years old. In those…Read More
In this article, you can discover… What families should understand when considering private adoption. What pitfalls adoptive families should avoid when seeking private adoption. How an adoption lawyer can support adoptive families. What Should Families Know When Considering Private Adoption In Pennsylvania? The first thing is to understand what we mean when we say “private adoption.” In Pennsylvania, a private adoption is a term we use for situations where the adoptive family and birth family connect outside of a licensed adoption agency. If an agency is involved in making the match, it’s considered an agency adoption. Otherwise, all others are considered private. One of the biggest challenges in private adoption is simply finding a connection to a birth mother seeking a better home for her child. Since there’s no agency actively searching for a match on your behalf, it often comes down to word of…Read More
