What Can Go Wrong If You Don’t Update Your Estate Plan When You Divorce?

This feeling that there is little standing between you and what you always wanted, but that you feel completely lost about making the first move toward a feeling of stability or relief is familiar. You felt this early in your marriage. You looked forward to meeting your special someone, and when you met your future spouse, you dreamed of getting married and building a life together. Once you were married, though, the things that should have made you happy made you miserable. Money was a constant source of conflict, and your in-laws ate up all your leisure time and invaded your privacy. Things never got better, and you eventually got divorced. You should feel relieved, but instead you feel stuck. There is no deadline for when your new normal must begin. Some people leave the clutter lying around in their houses for years from when their exes packed their belongings and left. No one is here to shame you about feeling stuck or to pressure you to sign up for the humiliation of dating apps, but you can’t afford not to update your estate plan after divorce. For help making just enough changes to your estate plan that you can comfortably go back to feeling stuck, contact a Bronx estate planning lawyer.

There Might Be Assets Listed in Your Will That Now Belong to Your Ex-Spouse

Failure to update your will after you get divorced does not mean that your ex-spouse will inherit everything that you bequeathed to him or her in your will during your marriage. If you divorce and later die without ever updating your will, the probate court will interpret your will as if your ex-spouse predeceased you. In other words, it will award the inheritance designated for your spouse to the successor beneficiaries listed in your will. You can leave your probate case open to other problems if you don’t update your will, though.

If your divorce is final, this means that the court officially divided your marital property, whether according to its own judgment about what is fair or pursuant to the marital settlement agreement that you and your ex drafted during mediation. Therefore, there might be assets mentioned in your will that no longer belong to you, because the court awarded them to your ex-spouse. This isn’t a disastrous scenario, but it can be frustrating for the personal representative of your estate and for your heirs.

Your Ex Might Still Be a Beneficiary of Non-Probate Assets

Unlike spouse-related provisions in a will, beneficiary designations on non-probate assets do not automatically change when you get divorced. If you listed your ex-spouse as a beneficiary on a transfer on death (TOD) or payable on death (POD) account, your ex will still inherit the account unless you change the beneficiary designation.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney

An estate planning lawyer can help you make the necessary revisions to your estate plan after you divorce.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

codes.findlaw.com/ny/estates-powers-and-trusts-law/ept-sect-5-1-1-a.html