Whether you divorce her or not is up to you but you need to adjust your estate plan either way. If you stay with her, you need to be certain that you name the executor and trustee that you desire. If you don’t want her to get everything upon your death, you need to be very explicit about that in your trust. If you want your parents or siblings to be the guardian of your children instead of her parents and siblings, you need to stipulate that in your will (and you need to survive her). Who do you want making health care decisions for you? Financial decisions? Pulling the plug on your death bed?
Maybe you decide to divorce her. Your marital settlement agreement will most likely require that you procure a life insurance policy. Your life insurance policy should be owned by an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust and not in your own name. If you already had an estate plan drafted, you’ll want to amend or restate all of the documnets to remove your now ex-wife from them completely. That is, unless you want her to still control all of your financial and medical decision making if you become incapacitated. Remember that line above regarding pulling the plug? It probably shouldn’t be left to your ex-wife.
And ladies, this goes for you too. After you wash that man right out of your hair, you had better erase him from your financial life as well. Aside from removing him from the above mentioned documents and drafting an entirely new estate plan, you’ll definitely want to have a trust put in place, if you haven’t already. If you die before your ex, he will be the guardian of any minor children that you had together. However, by using a trust to manage your assets instead of leaving them outright to your minor children, at least he wont inherit your stuff.
For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Pardo, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.
It’s a Wild world. Are you protected?