Something that is often overlooked, when going through a divorce, is seeking an estate planning attorney to make the appropriate changes to your estate plan. Until your divorce is final you are still married, which could lead to a multitude of assumptions by the law if something happened to you. Ask yourself this question:
Would you want the person who you are parting ways with to be in charge of all of your assets, financial and health care decisions, and inherit half of your estate?
If you are going through a divorce, you need to get your estate plan changed now and not wait until after the divorce is final.
In this Estate Planning Minute, Wes Coulson, Illinois Elder Law attorney, discusses another Common Estate Planning Mistake and how failing to change your estate plan while your divorce is pending could lead to unwanted results if something were to happen before the divorce is final.
Common Estate Planning Mistake #18: Failing to change your Estate Plan while a divorce is pending
Transcript:
Hello, I’m Wes Coulson and this is your Estate Planning Minute. This is another is our series on Common Estate Planning Mistakes. I think I’m about to sound like Captain Obvious here, but nevertheless, this is something that is so often overlooked.
If you are going through a divorce, you need to get your estate plan changed now, not wait until after the divorce is final. If something happened to you, do you want the person who you are parting ways with, to be in charge of all of your assets, be in charge of all of your financial decisions, be in charge of all of your health care decisions, to inherit half of your estate? I guess if your answer is “Yes,” you don’t need to change, but that’s pretty much not my experience.
Until you’re divorced, you’re married. And while you are married the law makes a bunch of assumptions about who you would want to be in charge of things for you and who you would want to inherit from you, and they assume that that’s by and large your spouse. So, one of the first things you need to do when a divorce proceeding is pending is to go to see an estate planning lawyer, like us, and get some changes made to your estate plan. Thanks.
For more Common Estate Planning Mistakes, visit these articles:
- Common Estate Planning Mistake #8: Failing to address the possibility of a second spouse disinheriting children from a first marriage
- Common Estate Planning Mistake #3: Trying to plan an Estate around specific assets
- Common Estate Planning Mistake #6: Trying to ‘Do it Yourself’
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