Divorce attorneys note that many clients fail to remove former spouses from their beneficiary designations.
If you fail to remove these designations, those amounts may end up being paid out to a former spouse. Usually, that’s not the result you want!
For best results, handle beneficiary designations and other tedious paperwork as soon as possible.
Often a court will require a spouse, or both spouses, to maintain a certain level of life insurance coverage after the divorce, most often, to protect the children. Children are always the first concern in any divorce trial. If you are required to maintain life insurance “until the children turn 18” or another requirement, use your Google calendar to make sure you don’t miss the date. Typically, it would be far better for your life insurance to go to the intended beneficiaries, your children, than your former spouse.
As always, every situation is unique. This series is intended to “start the thinking process” to take emotive choices out of a hard situation. Everyone’s situation is different, and this is not intended as legal advice. Please, speak to a divorce attorney prior to making any decisions, especially decisions based on a simple blog post. There are many mitigating factors that will go into the final divorce decree.