Many people feature their spouses predominantly in their estate plans, and if you are among them and your marriage winds up imploding, you may have cause to make some changes. Unless you take particular steps to limit how much power your ex retains over certain affairs while your divorce case is ongoing, you run the risk of your former partner potentially having more control over you than you might like.
According to Forbes, many people navigating their way through divorces choose to make similar updates to their estate plans. Ultimately, the changes you may want to make are going to vary broadly based on how you crafted your estate plan in the first place. However, you may want to devote some attention to updating your estate plan in several key areas.
You may, for starters, want to change your beneficiary designations where possible to possibly reduce how much you leave behind to your ex. You may have certain elements of your estate plan that you are unable to change, but it makes sense to give it a second look and figure out if you might want to leave certain assets you had set aside for your ex to someone else.
You may also want to update or modify your health care proxy and power of attorney once your romantic relationship comes to an end. Failing to update your health care proxy may, depending on circumstances, mean that your ex is going to retain decision-making power in the event that you become incapacitated or require medical attention you are unable to commit to personally. Failing to update your power of attorney, meanwhile, may give your ex continued access to your bank accounts and financial affairs. Find more about estate planning on our webpage.
