• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Zimmer Law Firm logo Zimmer Law Firm
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning
    • Legacy Wealth Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Young Adult Protection Plan
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Zimmer Law Firm

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys

513.721.1513
Request a Free Consultation
Request a Free Consultation

Google initial with star next to it

  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning
    • Legacy Wealth Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Young Adult Protection Plan
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Home Our Blog When Divorce Interrupts Estate Planning

When Divorce Interrupts Estate Planning

By Barry Zimmer on June 25th, 2015 in General

Did you know that divorce rates for those over the age of 50 more than doubled between 1990 and 2010? This means that one in 25 couples in this age group are divorcing at a time in their lives when they likely never dreamed possible. It also presents a number of other important elements: what will your estate plan look like on the other side of divorce? What will your bank account look like? Your 401(k)? Your assets and properties? These are important considerations and ones that you’ll be addressing in both the divorce and your overall estate planning efforts. Whether it’s the baby boomers driving the trend or the fact that divorce simply isn’t seen in the same way it was fifty years ago matters little; there are long term considerations that must be addressed and handled.

Estate Planning After Divorce

Even as you’re dealing with the overwhelming reality of life as a single person, there are issues that will affect every aspect of your life. Here are a few:

Your home or homes: who gets what and then how do you divide it in your estate plan after the divorce?
What about your joint bank accounts? Odds are, your divorce attorney has already encouraged you to tread carefully. You have to consider what those balances are after you’ve divided assets.

Don’t forget the life insurance policies, 401(k) accounts and other retirement accounts. They have value and you’ll need to rethink your beneficiaries as well. The divorce does not automatically void designations on insurance policies, retirement accounts and more. In most instances, it only terminates a spouse’s right to inherit if there was no will.

You’ll also need to change your will, any trusts you’ve established and your powers of attorney, including your financial power of attorney and your medical power of attorney.

Marital Property

There’s also the matter of differentiating marital property from separate property. For instance, you might have bought a home before you met your husband. After you married, he moved in, and years later, you opted to take out a HELOC to make some home improvements. If his name is on the title, it’s now deemed marital property in most instances.

Trusts

In recent years, there has been a move towards using irrevocable family trusts, both as a way to bypass the sometimes-awkward prenuptial agreement and as a way to protect some assets, such as a family home. The trust owns the home, versus the husband and/or wife. This is a great solution for some, but it may not be right for every situation. Legal guidance is crucial in these matters.

Any assets left to your spouse in your will are still fair game, so if you no longer want your wife to have your great grandmother’s diamond ring, be sure to change it in your will.

Of course, this is the tip of the iceberg, details matter. Be sure to keep your estate planning attorney in the loop so that he can best protect your interests moving forward. With a bit of planning, life after divorce doesn’t have to feel as though you’re starting over from a financial perspective.

Primary Sidebar

Request a Free Consultation

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What Our Clients Say

Some years ago, Barry Zimmer suggested we do a basic estate plan for our son when he went to college. We had no idea how important it would be! In our son's freshman year, he ended up in the hospital, and we were able to get crucial information about his condition because we had a health care ...

Read All Testimonials

Zimmer Law Firm

9825 Kenwood Road
Suite 201
Cincinnati, OH 45242

Copyright © 2025 Zimmer Law Firm
Disclaimer Privacy Policy

 

Make a Payment