ESTATE PLANNING BEFORE & AFTER DIVORCE

A divorce affects a person’s estate planning documents and beneficiary designations.  

• When should you revise your Durable Power of Attorney and Advanced Healthcare Directive?
• Are you prepared and do you have a plan in place to assure assets received in a divorce proceeding are protected after the divorce is final?  

Before the divorce process has started:

• Powers of Attorney should be revised to remove the spouse.
• Beneficiary designations on separate property that is not involved in the divorce settlement should be revised to name the intended beneficiaries. (Life insurance, investment accounts, annuities, etc.) Review Calif. Family Law code §2040 for restrictions.

After the divorce is final:

• Establish a new Trust and/or Will
• Retitle assets (Real property, vehicles, timeshares, investments, etc.)
• Revise all beneficiary designations for assets received as part of the divorce settlement.

The process for creating an estate plan depends on the complexity of family and assets. A basic trust package includes: Revocable Trust, Certification of Trust, General Assignment, Will (with guardianship language if there are children under the age of 18), Durable Power of Attorney, Advanced Healthcare Directive, Trust Transfer deed.

The process can be completed within less than 3 weeks with two meetings with one conference call in between. Contact me if you would like to learn more about estate planning.

916-225-3570   cj@cjwatterslaw.com    http://www.cjwatterslaw.com

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