Splitting from your significant other is undoubtedly going to lead to changes in your life. You may feel most concerned with figuring out where you are going to live and how you are going to support yourself and your family after your divorce. However, there are other aspects of your life, too, that you may need to rethink after a split. For example, you may want to modify your estate plan once you and your spouse part ways to limit how much control your former partner has over certain affairs.
According to Forbes, your ex is going to retain certain rights while your divorce is ongoing unless you take necessary steps to diminish his or her power. In other words, in the unlikely, but possible, event that you become incapacitated before your divorce finalizes, your spouse may be the one with the right to make medical decisions on your behalf.
Because many people prefer not to have important aspects of their lives in their ex’s hands, many divorcing parties choose to update their estate plans soon after deciding to part ways. You may, for the reasons outlined above, decide to update your health care proxy, for example. Similarly, if you gave your spouse durable power of attorney, this essentially gives him or her access to your financial and other information, and you may not want this to be the case while your divorce is ongoing.
Other areas of your estate plan you may want to revisit amid divorce include your will and any trusts you may have. Depending on circumstances and your relationship with your ex, you may want to change your beneficiaries when and where possible to exclude your ex or reduce how much he or she is going to receive after your passing. Find more about estate planning on our webpage.
