Does Your Estate Plan Have An Ex-Spouse Problem?

You might think that drafting a will shortly after you got married and every time a child was born to you or you bought a house or inherited property from a deceased relative was a flex. Perhaps you even told your spouse how lucky your spouse was to be married to someone so conscientious and responsible. There is no guarantee that your spouse saw it that way. To your spouse, you might have seemed like a control freak, and perhaps that is why you and your spouse are now divorced. Your divorce knocked the wind out of you even after you took so many of life’s other setbacks in stride. It has been years since your divorce became final, and the estate planning documents are still gathering dust in the drawer where they have been since you thought everything was fine in your marriage. The thought of rewriting your estate plan for life and death without your ex fills you with doubt, even though, deep down you know that you and your ex were not as perfect a match as you once thought. You have the final decision about the provisions of your will and other estate planning documents, so it is your choice to keep your estate plan the same way it was when you were married. To ensure that this is an informed decision, though, you should channel your old, conscientious self and contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

What Will Your Ex-Spouse Inherit If You Never Update Your Estate Plan After Your Divorce?

If you never update your estate plan after your divorce and you predecease your spouse, the probate court will interpret your will as if your spouse died before you did; it will treat it the way it treats the wills of widowers and widows who never update their estate plans. As for revocable trusts, the provisions referring to the grantor’s spouse become void if the grantor and his or her spouse get divorced, so your spouse will not inherit revocable trust assets from you after you die. As one might expect, things are not so simple with irrevocable trusts; if you have an irrevocable trust with your spouse as a trustee or beneficiary, it is imperative to work with an estate planning lawyer if you get divorced. Meanwhile, if you listed your spouse as a beneficiary on a non-probate asset such as a transfer on death (TOD) bank account, divorce does not change the beneficiary designation. Your ex-spouse will remain the beneficiary unless you update the paperwork.

What If You Want Your Ex-Spouse to Inherit From You?

Perhaps you still consider your ex family and want to provide for him or her, even though the two of you couldn’t stand to live together. To ensure that the court understands your wishes, you should rewrite your will and modify your revocable trust instrument so that they explicitly state that you want certain assets to pass to your ex-spouse, even though the two of you are no longer married.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Estate Planning After Divorce

An estate planning lawyer can help you build an estate plan with as much or as little generosity toward your former spouse as suits you.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

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