You are dealing with a lot if you are going through a divorce. It’s a gravitational well and it swallows up anything not immediately pressing. For this reason it is understandable that most individuals do not think about getting their estate plan in place after a divorce is finalized. You are worried about figuring out what you have left, not where it is going. After coming out of the haze of a divorce, here are some things you should be doing.
(1) Update Powers of Attorney. Remove your spouse as your agent on your healthcare and financial powers of attorney. You don’t want him or her making decisions for you if the time comes for that. In fact, this is one of the few actions it is safe to do before the divorce is finalized.
(2) Beneficiary Designations. Update your beneficiary designations to remove your ex-spouse. Countless stories exist about a former spouse receiving insurance or retirement proceeds several decades after a marriage because beneficiary designations were never changed. Do keep in mind that some divorce stipulations may place temporary restrictions of what can be done with the designations for a period of time after the divorce, usually so as to provide protection against an early death if there are going to be on-going payments to the ex-spouse or a child.
(3) Update Estate Planning Documents. In most states, if you fail to update your Will or Trust after a divorce, a spouse that is still listed on the documents is nonetheless considered to have predeceased you. This will stop them from inheriting or running your estate. However, it is still a good idea to go through and clean up your documents and remove your ex-spouse so as provide clarity to your estate planning documents and make things easier on your family.
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