If you are facing an impending divorce or are already in the process of getting divorced, you may likely feel overwhelmed by the number of decisions you have to make as you disentangle yourself from your spouse. Many of these decisions help you move forward on a day-to-day basis and others aim to protect your long-term security and financial standing.
As you address your divorce topics, you should pay some attention to your estate plan as well. This might seem unimportant in the midst of a divorce, but it is very important. Most people name their spouse as the person able to make medical decisions for them if they are not able to do so for themselves. The same is true for managing finances. Once you are separated, you might logically want to assign those responsibilities to someone else. Forbes indicates this can be done before your divorce is final.
When it comes to your will or trust, these things must be updated but cannot be done until the divorce is over. This allows you to know what assets or debts you are left with so you can make the appropriate choices. It is important to note that a will or a trust may not be the only documents to create or update. You will also need to update beneficiaries on things like life insurance policies, retirement accounts and more.
If you would like to learn more about how to protect your finances and your health during and after a divorce, please feel free to visit the asset protections for divorcing spouses page of our United Kingdom estate planning website.
