Keeping your estate plan up to date is important to ensure that after your death everything goes according to your wishes. As your life changes, it is important that you adjust your estate plan documents to reflect those changes. You especially want to make alterations to your estate after a divorce.
According to Forbes, after a divorce, you will need to make sure you remove your former spouse from all documents. It is important to make these changes as soon as possible. You may be able to do some of them before you finalize your divorce.
Documents to update
You should make sure that you change the beneficiary on all your accounts if it is currently your former spouse. You will likely have to wait until after your divorce to do this since some of the accounts will go through the court for division.
Also, change your power of attorney and health care proxy. Both documents give the person you name decision-making power for you, and you want to be sure these documents still represent your wishes.
Update your will and any trusts as well to ensure your assets go to the right parties. You will need to reflect any changes due to the property division decisions in your divorce, too.
A note about children
If you have minor children, you may want to develop trusts or make changes to ensure they will receive their inheritances and not your former spouse. Keep minor children in mind throughout all the changes you make so that you still provide for them but can safeguard against potential issues with a former spouse.
