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Pitfalls Of Estate Planning During A Divorce

While you’ll find few who eschew the idea of estate planning, experts like the Orange, CA divorce lawyers at Dorie Rogers family law will tell you it’s quite another thing to try planning your estate in the midst of a marital legal battle. In fact, estate planning during a divorce is fraught with potential pitfalls. Here are a few points to take into consideration first.

You Need To Have A Plan

One major error that many divorcees make is failing to plan at all. They might assume they know who their beneficiaries are and where their assets will go upon their demise, but then things shake out differently in reality and leave everyone sorely disappointed.

While it may be difficult to concentrate on trying to formulate an estate plan during or shortly after a divorce, but, depending on what stage of your life you’re at, it might be an extremely necessary step, and one you shouldn’t be careless about.

You Should Plan For Incapacity

Let’s say you’re involved in a wreck, says Sacramento car accident attorney Huber Law Group, and you become incapacitated. Depending on your state, the fact that you’ve declared you’re getting a divorce doesn’t automatically negate your  spouse’s power to make financial and medical decisions for you.

If you were planning on granting these responsibilities to another party, you’ll need to explicitly state so in the course of your estate planning to ensure that the right individuals are empowered to make decisions on your behalf in the case you’re involved in an accident and can no longer do so yourself.

You May Need To Plan For Minor Children

In many cases, your post-divorce estate plan should take into consideration what will happen if you pass away before your children turn 18 years of age. If you have reservations about your former spouse raising the kids, you may need to name a choice for guardian in your estate planning documents so that the courts will take that into consideration.

Additional concerns involving your minor children include the control of their inheritance, whether or not they are named as beneficiaries for any policies you have in place, etc.

You Should Have A Professional In Your Corner

There are a number of additional concerns that may come into play when attempting to plan your estate during or shortly following your divorce, and attempting to go it alone is usually a critical error. You’ll have an easier time of things if you enlist the services of a professional, so find an advisor you can trust and get them to help you out.