New Year’s Resolution: Tying Up Loose Ends After Your Divorce
The trending news stories about Divorce Monday hit differently once you are already divorced. Now that your divorce is final or almost final, it is a relief not to scramble to get your divorce started at the beginning of the year. You are free to loaf, procrastinate, and do all the things you have been looking forward to doing since before your divorce case started. Of course, there are plenty of law-related New Year’s resolutions that recently divorced people should make, even though they do not lend themselves to shareable social media content in the same way that Divorce Monday does. This year, set yourself the goal of tying up all the loose ends and finishing all the paperwork that a lot of divorced people procrastinate. A Boca Raton divorce lawyer, divorce coach, or divorce concierge can help you with these tasks if this would enable you to get them done more quickly.
Update Your Estate Plan
When you are newly single, the last thing you want to do is to think about death, but no matter your age, it is important to update your estate plan after you get divorced. The law automatically invalidates certain spouse-related provisions of your will when your divorce becomes final. For example, your divorce automatically removes your spouse from the roles of beneficiary of your will, personal representative of your estate, beneficiary of your revocable trust, and transfer on death beneficiary of your bank account. From an estate planning perspective, it leaves these roles, and this wealth, up for grabs. Celebrate the people who have always been there for you by rewriting your estate plan and naming new beneficiaries.
Update Your Benefits at Work
After your divorce becomes final, you should notify your employer’s human resources office of your divorce. This may enable you to remove your spouse as a beneficiary of employer-provided insurance plans before or during the next annual benefits election cycle.
Notify Relevant Parties of Your Post-Divorce Name Change
If your divorce petition or your response to your ex-spouse’s divorce petition included a request to change your legal name back to the name you used before your marriage, this change will go into effect when your divorce becomes final. No one else finds out about the change until you tell them, though. Therefore, you should bring a copy of the divorce decree to your employer’s human resources office, banks where you hold accounts, and the DMV, so that they can update their records to reflect your name change. If you love attention, you can post about it on social media, but if not, just change your email signature so that it has your new name.
Contact Schwartz | White About Finishing Up Your Post-Divorce Paperwork
A South Florida family law attorney can help you avoid ambiguity by updating all of your official paperwork to reflect your divorced status and, if applicable, your new legal name. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2018/732.507
