The Importance of Estate Planning Post Divorce

Today, I have a guest blogger  who reminds us of another very important loose end to tie up after your divorce…

GUEST BLOGGER: Gabriel Cheong, Esq.

So now that you’ve survived the entire process of divorce and you’re ready to begin the next chapter of your life – where do you begin?  Let me suggest one place to start – your old estate plan.

What do I mean by estate plan?  I mean documents such as your will, power of attorney, health care proxy and directive (or living will), trusts, life insurance policies, beneficiary bank account designations, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, money market accounts, etc.

After your divorce, the one thing I’m sure you do not want is for your ex-spouse to inherit any of your property or money.  In order to prevent this, you must change your estate plan as soon as possible and in fact, your divorce attorney should have advised you to change these documents during the divorce process. 

You might be asking though if you have kids, what if you pass away and your ex-spouse is the guardian of your children, you want your kids to have your money so shouldn’t you still leave everything to your ex-spouse so they can take care of the children?  The answer is no.  Shouldn’t you leave everything to your kids then?  The answer again is no.  If you leave everything to your ex-spouse, there is no obligation for him to use your money exclusively for the benefit of your children.  If you leave your money to your children, they might squander it away or, if your children are minors, they can’t even legally inherit money; your ex-spouse will be guardian over the money.  So what’s the solution? Put money and property in a trust for the benefit of your children.

Here is the Action Plan: If you have an old estate planning lawyer, go back to him or her and redo the entire plan.  If you don’t have an estate planning lawyer, go find one.  You will need specifically an “estate planning” lawyer, not simply a lawyer who drafts wills.  An estate plan, as I described above, is more than just a will. 

Gabriel Cheong, Esq. is the owner of Infinity Law Group located in the Boston metro area of Massachusetts.  He practices in the areas of Family Law and Estate Planning.  For more information about Gabriel and his practice, please visit the firm’s website http://www.infinlaw.com or his blog at http://gabrielcheonglaw.com.