Are My Accounts And Property Titles Important Once I Have Divorced And Remarried?

After you become divorced, you need to look at all your accounts to make sure that your former spouse is no longer entitled to any inheritance rights or access. You do not want your ex-spouse to be a beneficiary designation on all of your retirement plans or life insurance, unless you are required to keep your spouse as a beneficiary and joint owner on your assets, like your house and your checking account. There are provisions in the law that if you haven’t changed these designations before you pass away, the spouse is going to be treated as predeceased. However, you don’t want to rely on the defaults at law.

After divorce, people typically should change their beneficiary designations and ownership of their accounts. Prior to a remarriage, you need to consider how you have your accounts titled and set up. Prior to marriage, you can enter into a prenuptial agreement. The prenuptial agreement addresses what happens to assets upon divorce and can also cover what happens to your assets upon your death or incapacity. This is very important because surviving spouses are entitled to default rights under Florida law that can completely rewrite or rechange your will or trust. What you put on paper can be ignored because your surviving spouse had not waived rights prior to your marriage or before your death.

The spouse has the rights to inherit some interest and use of the primary residence or homestead upon the death of the first spouse. This becomes a problem when one spouse moves into the house of another spouse upon marriage and the owner of that house dies first, and that spouse’s children want to inherit the house they grew up in. The next common conflict that needs to be addressed through premarital agreement is the surviving spouse’s right to the elective share. The elective share is the Florida statutory automatic entitlement of a surviving spouse, should the first spouse completely disinherit his spouse. The surviving spouse gets 30% of the elective estate if the first spouse passes away. This becomes a problem if the husband and wife remarried after age 50, with two sets of kids, and the couple wants to have their financials remain separate, so that each spouse’s kids inherit from their parents.

With the elective share, if it’s not waived, the surviving spouse can actually sue the children of his or her late spouse to get up to 30% of the total estate. The rights of the surviving spouse are very important to be addressed in a prenuptial agreement and if there is no prenuptial agreement, there can be a postnuptial agreement to waive these rights. Once you are remarried, you need to look at the titling of your assets to make sure that it’s consistent with your estate plan and estate documents, so that there is a good and clear understanding between your new spouse and your adult children regarding inheritance rights.

Can I Modify An Estate Plan I Had Made With My Ex-Spouse Without Getting Her Consent?

Under Florida Law, before you are divorced, your spouse is entitled to all rights of a surviving spouse up until the day that a final divorce decree is signed. Upon that divorce, the relationship between you and your ex-spouse is totally and completely non-familiar. You are able to change your estate planning wishes for most items, after your divorce is completed, without the consent of your ex-spouse. For parents of younger children under the age of 18, the ex-spouse cannot have his or her rights as a natural parent severed. If you have primary custody of your children, your ex-spouse still has rights to custody when you pass away. That is not severed.

You are also not able to violate your divorce decree that says you have to do certain things regarding life insurance and your estate. Your failure to take those actions could result in a claim against your estate. In most instances, you do not need your ex-spouse’s agreement to change your estate planning documents.

For more information on Accounts & Property Title After Remarriage, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling (904) 398-6100 today.

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