If You’re Getting a Divorce, It’s Time to Update Your Estate Plan

Divorce can be difficult to deal with, especially if it’s not amicable, and untangling the financial life you had with your spouse can be overwhelming. If you have an estate plan in place, it’s important to update it as soon as you can instead of waiting for the divorce to be official. If you wait, you may find your assets going to people you didn’t intend.

That’s why you need to not only take action as soon as the divorce process begins but to enlist the help of a legal professional that’s handled this process before and knows exactly what needs to be done.

Updating Your Estate Plan After a Virginia Divorce

In some states, divorce essentially severs all financial ties between two spouses. But Virginia laws are a bit complex in that divorce automatically revokes some provisions in an estate plan while others are left untouched.

Even in areas where divorce has a legal impact, you want to take steps to update things quickly because those implications take effect once the divorce is official. And if something should happen to you while you’re in the process of a divorce but it’s not final, those changes won’t take place.

If you’re getting a divorce, there are several steps you need to take with your estate plan.

• Revoke your will and make a new one. If you don’t already have a will, the period immediately after a divorce is a great time to set up a new one. But if you have one in place, it’s very important to make a new one at this point. In Virginia, divorce actually nullifies any provisions to someone’s spouse in a will. But instead of leaving room for argument in court, it’s best to go ahead and set up a completely different will that leaves no wiggle room.
• Update your beneficiaries. Similar to a will, if you have your spouse as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy, retirement account, or investment account, assets will not transfer when they become your ex-spouse. But if something should happen to you while you’re in the process of divorce, your spouse would still be the beneficiary.
• Designate a new trustee. While the two documents work in conjunction, a trust and a will are very different. And unlike a will, a divorce doesn’t affect a trust. The person you have named as a trustee will take control if you’re incapacitated—no matter who it is and no matter your marital status. If you’re divorcing and no longer want your spouse as a trustee, you must make this change on your own.
• Designate a new power of attorney. Like a will, power of attorney is automatically revoked if spouses are legally separate. But many divorces are contentious, and if your spouse is your power of attorney, it’s best if you go ahead and designate a new one as quickly as you can instead of waiting for the final decree. If you should somehow become incapacitated in the period before the divorce is official, your spouse would still have control over your legal affairs or your healthcare decisions.
• Choose new legal guardians. Your will usually designates who you want to have guardianship of your children if something happens to both parents. If something should happen to just one parent, the other parent gets custody. But if the other parent is unfit or unwilling to take on that role, the court will appoint a new guardian. If you don’t want your ex-spouse or their parents to have custody of your children if you pass away, you need to specify why in a document attached to your will and give another option for the court to consider.

Our Chesapeake Law Firm Can Handle Your Divorce and Estate Planning Needs

You don’t have to try to handle your divorce alone. Instead of dealing with legal proceedings and paperwork piled on top of emotional challenges, let a professional help. At Coastal Atlantic Law, we can not only assist with divorce proceedings, but we can also handle your new estate plan as well.

If you need legal services or representation in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, attorney Kristen Alexander is here for you. We serve clients in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, and the surrounding areas. Contact us to discuss how our legal team can be of assistance.