How Does an Estate Planning Attorney Help if I Get Divorced?
By Barry Zimmer on September 21st, 2017 in Estate Planning
If you have ended your marriage, you should talk with an estate planning attorney. Reaching out to a lawyer is vitally important if you need to update your estate plan to account for the fact that you are no longer married to your previous partner.
If you do not already have an estate plan in place, it is also important to talk with a lawyer. While everyone should have an estate plan, it can be especially vital to have a plan in place if you are not married because you don’t have a spouse who assets and decision-making can default to if something happens to you.
Zimmer Law Firm is here to help you make updates to your estate plan in the aftermath of your divorce. Making the right plans to protect your future is not something that can wait, so you should reach out to talk with an estate planning attorney at our firm as soon as possible after you have decided to end your marriage or after your divorce has become final.
Give us a call to find out more about the ways in which we help you to update your plans or make a plan for the first time after the end of a marriage.
How Will an Estate Planning Attorney Help Post-Divorce?
After a divorce, you need to make sure your former spouse is not in a position to inherit from you if you don’t want him to. You also want to make sure you have not given your former spouse continued authority to manage your assets and make your decisions in case of your incapacity.
If you made an estate plan in the past when you were married, you may have given your spouse property and authority in case of your sickness or your death that you no longer wish him or her to have. If you did not make an estate plan during your marriage and have no plans in place at all, you need to make sure you have determined who should be in charge or your decisions if you cannot be and who will obtain your property if you pass on.
Typically, when a couple is married, they create an estate plan allowing assets to pass on from the spouse who passes away first to the surviving spouse. This makes it possible to avoid estate taxes, which are not charged when one spouse leaves assets to another. If there are children, then it is usually assumed the last surviving spouse will leave money and property to children. While husbands and wives do have the option to leave some of their money and property to someone outside of the marriage, it is common for people who are married to each other to simply choose their spouse as the person to inherit and as their beneficiary on accounts like life insurance policies.
Zimmer Law Firm will help you to update any existing plans that you made during your marriage. Not only can we assist you in revising your last will and testament and other estate planning tools so your spouse doesn’t inherit any more, we can also help you to make a plan to reduce or avoid any estate taxes that your estate could owe due to the fact you’re not leaving assets to your spouse.
And, because you may have also given your ex power of attorney in case of your incapacity, we can help you to update your incapacity plan as well so you have a trusted person looking out for your interests and acting on your behalf in case you become unable to act on your own.
Getting Help from An Estate Planning Attorney
An estate planning attorney at Zimmer Law Firm will discuss with you the types of plans you need to put in place after your marriage is over so you are prepared in case of incapacity and so you can have the type of legacy you want. Our legal team is ready and willing to help you to create a plan for the first time that is designed for your specific life situation, and we also have the knowledge and legal skill to help you update an existing plan that you may have put in place during your marriage.
Don’t take a chance on your assets being left to your former spouse or on default laws applying that don’t work to achieve the outcomes that you desire for end-of-life issues and your legacy. Put your personalized plan in place with the help of an experienced attorney at our firm. You can learn more about the services that we provide by joining us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 at any time to find out about how our firm can help you.