Changing Your Will

Though one may think that the legal part of his or her divorce is completed, still, there are certain issues that need to be considered such as looking for the court orders and making a new Will. When experiencing matrimonial problems, it is necessary to take into account as to what would happen to the property if you die.

It is not necessary that when you draft a Will, your wishes will be automatically carried out after your death. Getting divorce would render your wishes to be null and void. When you forget to create a new Will after your divorce or remarriage, the aftermaths would be worse or even severe. Many people do not realise that divorce does more than changing the marital status, i.e., it revokes the existing arrangements made in the Will. Therefore, the provisions made for the children, relatives or friends, may become null and void after getting divorce. One must not assume that just because one has drafted a Will in the dim and distant past, his or her wishes will be carried out as they wish. It is not so actually.

On divorce, there are chances that your previous Will could become invalid. Most of the people do not give importance to this after marriage breakdown, so the repercussions for the family would be severe. When both the individuals are riding the emotional rollercoaster, dealing with the divorce, especially dealing with future finances, could be difficult.

A divorce does not necessarily revoke a previous Will. However, if your ex-spouse is introduced as a beneficiary in the Will, then, after divorce, he or she will no more be a beneficiary or receive a gift; unless and until the Will specifically says that, the mentioned gift should take effect even after the divorce. If your ex-spouse is mentioned as an executor, then after divorce, he or she will no more be permitted to act as executor or get probate of your Will. Therefore, it is always advisable to draft a fresh Will immediately after the divorce.

When a marriage ends by a court order such as divorce or annulment, your Will does not become void or invalid. What really happens is that the gift assured to the ex-spouse takes effect as if he or she had died on the date your decree became absolute. This means that the gift automatically falls back into residue for the benefit of the other residuary beneficiaries. However, if you had left everything for your ex-spouse, then the consequence is as if you had died intestate. Therefore, here too, it becomes important to make a fresh Will after the divorce decree.

If the Will does not mention clearly as to who will inherit as a replacement for former spouse, the property left to him or her might go to the individual named in the Will as getting whatever is left over. As this is against your whims and fancies, it is always good to rewrite your Will after the divorce, so that you can ensure that the property goes to the person whom you have chosen.

The rule about nullifying gifts to the former spouses does not pertain to trusts, insurance policies, retirement plans, or other instruments like living Wills. As many people make use of living trusts as a substitute of Wills to transfer the bulk of their property at death, in order to evade the setbacks and costs of probate, it is very essential to keep in mind that the living trusts need to be changed after a divorce. All these particulars must be changed to keep out the former spouse, if that is preferred. All these issues are quite complicated to make a note of it. Therefore, the best advice is to consult a solicitor and seek professional advice for creating a new Will after divorce.

There are several online agencies, which offer high quality Wills at affordable rates and also allow for free updates. Therefore, one need not go through the frequent troubles and expenses of updating their Will whenever there is a change in their personal lives.

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