A significant part of the divorce process for most people involves division of the couple’s assets.
Though this mainly involves working with divorce lawyers to fairly distribute things like wealth, property, and debt, it must also address estate planning as well.
More importantly, divorce attorneys recommend making modifications to your estate before the divorce is final, rather than waiting to do it afterward, to avoid potential problems later.
Divorce And Estate Planning - Expect The Unexpected
With everything else there is to take care of and all the other decisions that need to be made during divorce proceedings, divorce lawyers find that couples commonly feel as though changing their estates can wait until after the divorce is finalized.
Estate changes are expected when couples divorce and naturally reflect the agreed-upon or required division of marital property.
Yet what many do not consider is the possibility of unexpected events happening before those changes can be made.
Although the likelihood of something extreme happening immediately following a divorce and before being able to meet with an estate planner, stranger things have happened!
Should you meet an untimely fate after the divorce decree is signed, there is nothing a divorce attorney can do to change who receives your estate.
Ex-spouses who were named as beneficiaries for estates that have not yet been changed to reflect a divorce would still be entitled to that inheritance.
An ex-spouse named as an executor would still hold that role as well.
Start Estate Changes Early
If divorce is on the horizon and you are planning on filing soon, the best thing to do is discuss it first with a divorce lawyer.
Once the divorce is underway and the division of property begins, it will be very difficult to make these changes until after the divorce has been finalized.
What Estate Plan Changes Should Be Made Before Divorce?
An estate plan affects everyone named as a beneficiary of your personal wealth.
When a divorce is coming, necessary adjustments should be made to ensure the right people are named as your beneficiaries and another executor, power of attorney, and healthcare power of attorney is chosen if your ex-spouse was given any of those titles.
Your divorce attorney should also be involved in this process as far as determining what property must be divided with your ex-spouse and what will remain inheritable according to the terms outlined in the estate plan.
Additionally, if there are children involved, a new guardian must be named for them and new trusts created if they are to receive your financial wealth.
Make Estate Plan Changes Before A Divorce
The possibility that something will happen to you in the short time period between finalizing a divorce and modifying your estate plan is small, but nothing about life is certain.
To this effect, divorce lawyers strongly recommend making estate plan changes before filing for divorce to avoid the realities of the wrong people inheriting your assets after an unexpected happening.
If you do not already have a will and estate plan arranged and the possibility of an upcoming divorce exists, this is even more reason to meet with a divorce attorney and an estate specialist to take care of this critical life planning.
