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Ask a family law attorney about estate planning needs

by | Jun 21, 2018 | Family Law

Spouses who are preparing to divorce have a long list of items on their legal to-do list. Among those items should be having a frank discussion about estate planning with their Florida family law attorney. If estate planning needs are left unmet, the outcome can be drastically different than what one intended.

Take, for example, the recent deaths of celebrities Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Both took their own lives, and both were estranged from their spouses at the time of their deaths. That left their estranged spouses in charge of handling their final arrangements. It also left a considerable amount of wealth to spouses that they were no longer living with.

It’s impossible to know if that was the outcome that either Spade or Bourdain intended. What is certain, however, is that most spouses don’t want their soon-to-be-ex handling emergency medical decisions, funeral planning, or inheriting the bulk of their wealth. Without proper planning, however, that is exactly what occurs in many cases.

In the early stages of divorce, it’s important to create a new Health Care Directive and an updated will. Checking the beneficiaries on various accounts is also something that deserves attention. The best way to cover all the applicable bases is to sit down with a Florida family law attorney to discuss the overlap between divorce needs and estate planning needs. Divorce can be a hectic process, filled with a seemingly endless list of issues that require attention. Handling estate planning needs, however, should sit near the top of that list.

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