Important estate planning considerations amid divorce

As a New York resident who is currently going through a divorce from your significant other, you may find yourself focused on getting your affairs back in order and figuring out your living situation in the days that follow. While working through such matters is an undeniably important aspect of divorce, so, too, is making necessary changes to your estate plan. At the law office of Joseph Ledwidge, P.C., we recognize that your estate planning needs may change in the wake of a divorce. We have helped many people facing similar circumstances make changes to their estate plans that better reflect their new circumstances.

According to Forbes, many married people give their spouses important roles with regard to their estate plans, which might mean giving the other party in the marriage the power to make health care-related decisions, financial decisions and so on. Once your marriage ends, however, you may not want your one-time spouse having so much power over your situation and affairs, and you may have cause to update various areas of your estate plan .

For starters, you may have left some of your assets behind to your former spouse in your will, but you may not want him or her to be a beneficiary anymore once your divorce finalizes. Ultimately, you will need to make some important decisions about what to leave behind for your spouse, or you may decide not to leave anything at all in a move he or she may challenge somewhere down the line.

You may, too, want to  update your health care directives in the wake of a divorce. Often, spouses give one another the power to make medical decisions in the event that one party in the marriage becomes unable to make such decisions for his or herself. For obvious reasons, however, you may not want your former spouse having this power once your marriage ends, in which case you will probably want to consider giving the responsibility to someone else. You can find out more about estate planning by visiting our website.