Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog
Failure to do so — or to alert all relevant parties to the changes — could result in certain assets and benefits unintentionally going to your former spouse or his or her family upon your death.
A MarketWatch article, titled “Just divorced? Don’t forget to separate your estate plans,” shares a true life story of why we all need to pay close attention to our estate plans after a divorce.
Robyn Lewis executed a will in 1996 that named her then-husband to receive her property after her death. The property included the house—a home that had been in her family for generations. In her will she designated her then-father-in-law as the secondary beneficiary. Robyn ended up divorcing her husband, but no record was found of a change in her secondary beneficiary after the divorce.