If you have a house, a car, retirement plans and personal assets, you need a will while going through and after the divorce. The will controls the disposition of your separate and community property at your death whether you are divorced or not. If you die before your divorce is final, who do you want to receive your assets? Your soon to be ex-spouse or your children? (The will does not control your beneficiary designations on retirement assets, annuities or assets held as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.)
You want your will to name an executor or personal representative to fulfill your directions and requirements. For example, do you want to be cremated or buried in you home state? Do you want your ex-spouse to manage the children’s money if they are minors? How do you want your personal property divided? If you are not dead but declared incompetent, who do you want to handle your financial affairs and determine the scope of your health care to keep you alive?
Here is my list of the Eleven Most Common Mistakes In Estate Planning, Pre or Post Divorce:
1. Failure to have a will.
2. Failure to coordinate other estate planning technique with the will (for example, registration of the assets).
3. Failure to deal with business succession.
4. Failure to deal with incapacity or incompetence.
5. Illiquidity - lack of cash to pay estate taxes.
6. Leaving everything to a spouse.
7. Wrong choice of three key players (executor, trustee and guardian)
8. Treating all the beneficiaries the same.
9. Failure to review and update the estate plan.
10. Failure to deal with non-citizenship issues.
See an attorney who specializes in estate planning to determine which documents are most appropriate for your circumstances, during the divorce and after. There is no better time to address these issues than when you are getting a divorce.