Two of the most stressful things to deal with are divorce and death. If your Will no longer caters for your family circumstances, this can make an already stressful time worse. It is therefore important to consider updating your Will as a key part of the divorce process.

If you do not have a Will, until the decree absolute is pronounced (the final order which concludes the divorce process), your spouse will inherit at least the first £322,000 of your estate and half of the remainder, and often more. The only way to prevent this is to put a Will in place setting out how you would want your estate to be distributed.

If you have already made a Will which includes your spouse as an executor and/or beneficiary, until you receive your decree absolute, your spouse remains entitled to any gifts you leave to them and will be entitled to take up their role as executor. To ensure that the people you want to inherit your estate are the ones who do inherit, you should update your Will as early as possible in the divorce process.

Our solicitors will be able to advise you on the different options available to you to ensure that your Will includes the best provisions to meet your needs and to help you choose your executors (the people who will put your Will into practice for you).

We can also advise you on other steps to consider which you may not know are needed, such as checking how you own your property. If you and your spouse own your property as joint tenants and you die, regardless of the provisions of your Will, your spouse will automatically inherit your interest in the property. To prevent this, we can prepare the necessary paperwork to change the ownership and ensure that your interest in the property passes to your chosen beneficiaries.

For more on how we can help with Transfer of Equity, click here.

If you have a Will in place, once you receive your decree absolute, the law does some of the hard work for you. Any reference in your Will to your now ex-spouse is interpreted as if they died before you. This means if you have appointed them as your executor they will not be allowed to act and if you have left something to them in your Will, they will no longer inherit.

However, unless the people dealing with your estate seek advice, they may not know that this is what happens. To avoid any confusion or your estate being dealt with incorrectly, you should update your Will to make it clear who you want to act as your executors and who you want to inherit from your estate. This is particularly true if you have young children, and you need to appoint someone to manage their inheritance until they are old enough to manage it themselves.

We can guide you in considering who to appoint as trustees to ensure that your children’s money is protected. We can also advise you on the different trust options available to ensure that your children don’t inherit when they are too young.

Before the financial aspect of your divorce is finalised with a clean break order, your spouse can make a claim against your estate. We can advise you on how this could impact on any Will you make.

Another time to consider divorce and Wills is if a beneficiary is getting divorced. Have you included a gift to their now ex-spouse in your Will? If you have, that ex-spouse will still receive the gift. If a beneficiary is getting divorced, you may also wish to consider whether you still want them to benefit or whether you may wish to consider other options to ensure that the beneficiary’s soon-to-be ex-spouse does not receive a share as part of the divorce. We can guide you through the different options so you can decide how best to leave your estate.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions expressed in this article does not address individual requirements and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute any form of legal advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to your particular circumstances.