Estate planning after a divorce is important, in order to make sure that you have updated, including making changes to when appropriate, all of your estate planning documents, as well as your beneficiary-designated accounts, such as your retirement accounts, life insurance accounts, joint accounts and any and all of your other assets.

Although it is easy to remove your former spouse from these documents and accounts, we often find that it is overlooked and can cause problems later, because they may not reflect who you now want on those documents and accounts.

It is a good idea to make changing them a priority so it does not fall by the wayside as your life moves forward. It is also important to try to talk to your former spouse to ensure that your children will be provided for by one or both of you in the future.

It is a mistake to assume that the other party will, as we often see situations where, in the fog of a divorce, both spouses fail to provide for their children, erroneously thinking that their former spouse is doing so. Thus, in the end the children get nothing, for no other reason than of lack of communication.

It is critical that you update all accounts and beneficiary designations after a divorce, to provide for whomever and however you would like in the future. This is an important and necessary step in your ongoing process of maintaining a proper and current estate plan, and will provide real peace of mind.

If you have a blended family or are divorced and still have estate planning documents with your prior spouse, come to one of our workshops to get started on the processes of updating your trust.  Just click here for dates and times and to RSVP.