If you are involved in a pending divorce, you already have a lot of legal concerns on your mind. You might be regularly meeting with your attorney, sending in documents, attending mediation sessions, or even going to court hearings. The last thing you want is to address other legal issues that might not seem as pressing. However, making the proper changes to your estate plan as part of your divorce is an essential step.
When people get married, they often plan to leave their estate – or most of it – to their spouse. This clearly all changes when your marriage ends. The following are some changes you might need to make to your estate plan during your divorce.
Will – Divorce effectively renders any distributions to your spouse in your will invalid. However, this does not happen until your divorce is final. If you are separated with a pending divorce, and you pass away, your spouse will still get your property. Update your will as soon as you know you want a divorce. Also, change your personal representative designation from your spouse if necessary.
Trust – Many spouses have joint trusts. You will want to revoke this trust and create a new one with you as the sole trustee.
Power of attorney – It is common to choose your spouse as your financial and/or medical power of attorney. You should change this designation to another trusted individual.
Beneficiary accounts – If your spouse is the beneficiary of life insurance policies, retirement accounts, investment accounts, and other financial sources, you should update these beneficiaries.
Contact a Divorce and Estate Planning Lawyer in Greensboro
At the EJ Boswell Law Office, we handle both divorce and estate planning matters, and we know how they intertwine. Contact us to discuss the many ways that a Greensboro estate planning and divorce attorney can assist you.