According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, 16 percent of children in America live in blended families that include either a stepparent, a stepsibling or a half-sibling. Meanwhile, 40 percent of American families may be considered “blended” with one partner having a child from a prior relationship.

With blended families, however, come unique legal issues.

One such issue is custody and visitation rights. In a blended family in which both partners have brought in children from a prior marriage or relationship, they each probably have their own custody and visitation arrangements based on what a judge determined to be in the children’s best interest. It’s possible that changing family dynamics after a remarriage can complicate those arrangements, particularly around holidays, vacations and stepsiblings’ custody arrangements, which may cause conflict between exes.

In such a case, particularly if you feel like your ex is unilaterally altering arrangements to meet the needs of his or her new family or being unreasonably inflexible in response to your needs, don’t take matters into our own hands. Instead, consult with a family law attorney who can provide legal guidance.

Creating a blended family may also mean that you need to redo your estate plan. In particular, you may need to redo your will to ensure that your new spouse replaces your former spouse as a beneficiary. And if you want to provide for your stepchildren in addition to your biological children, you will need to make sure they’re in your will as well, since stepchildren have no automatic inheritance rights in most states.

Similarly, you would need to update your beneficiary designations in your bank accounts, retirement accounts, and life insurance policies to reflect your wishes, particularly if you want your stepchildren to benefit.

Meanwhile, trusts — where assets are managed by a trustee who distributes income generated by trust assets to the named beneficiaries according to the creator’s wishes — can be impacted by blended families as well. Typically, in a blended family, a trust will need to be divided into two parts: one part that’s controlled by the surviving spouse (likely the stepparent), while a second part is for the benefit of your children (and your stepchildren if you so desire).

There are other issues that can arise in a blended family following divorce and remarriage as well. An experienced family law attorney can help you navigate them.