News & Analysis as of

Divorce Life Insurance Beneficiaries

Divorce is the formal legal dissolution of a marriage. The divorce process implicates many diverse areas of the law including, but not limited to, real estate, wills and trusts, child custody, and tax.
Bowditch & Dewey

Remember to Adjust Your Estate Plan During or After a Divorce

Bowditch & Dewey on

Married couples often have wills naming one another as their primary beneficiary. People also often name their spouse as beneficiary of retirement accounts and life insurance policies. Upon commencing a divorce action,...more

Lasher Holzapfel Sperry & Ebberson PLLC

Importance of Beneficiary Designations in Estate Planning

As a bit of background, there is a distinction between probate assets and non-probate assets. Probate assets are distributed according to your will during a probate administration whereas non-probate assets are distributed...more

Warner Norcross + Judd

Does a Declaration of Trust Ownership Convert a Beneficiary Designation to a Trust Asset?

In the recent case of Schaddelee as Cotrustee of Ronald Schaddelee Irrevocable Trust v. Deleon as Cotrustee of Ronald Schaddelee Irrevocable Trust, 2023 WL 4143639 (Mich Ct App Jun 22, 2023) (unpublished), the Michigan Court...more

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

Estate Planning Pitfall: You Haven’t Coordinated Beneficiary Designations With Your Will

Perhaps you drafted your will years ago and it references many of your existing assets, including retirement plan accounts and life insurance policies. But you also have paperwork on file with the applicable financial...more

Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires &...

Changes in the Pennsylvania Divorce Code

An important change to the Divorce Code will have a significant impact on contractual beneficiary designations effective May 2, 2023. Section 3323 has been amended to add subparagraph (b.1) which provides in part, “[a]n order...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

PA. Supreme Court Affirms that “Contractual Expectancies” Are Gifts & Non Marital Property

Fox Rothschild LLP on

Those of us from large firms sometimes read opinions where solo practitioners take a shot at an issue and force us to take notice. The facts in this Bucks County case litigated by a solo practitioner against a two lawyer firm...more

Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C.

Estate Planning During a Divorce: Four Key Considerations

You have planned your life carefully. With your spouse you have drawn up a will and established trusts to organize your estate after your deaths. You have made decisions about the guardianship of your children should anything...more

Burns & Levinson LLP

Estate Planning After Divorce

Burns & Levinson LLP on

Divorce attorneys saw a wave of divorces last year due to the changes in the tax laws that took effect on January 1, 2019. If you were one of the masses whose divorce was finalized in 2018, now is the time to revise your...more

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

Insight on Estate Planning - April/May 2019: A second walk down the aisle can complicate estate planning

An estate planning rule of thumb is to review (and, if necessary, revise) one’s estate plan in light of major life events. Such events include a marriage, birth of a child and a divorce. A second marriage also calls for an...more

Downey Brand LLP

Don’t Let Time Run Out on Updating Your Life Insurance Beneficiaries

Downey Brand LLP on

Your ex-spouse may take under your life insurance policy if you do not change your beneficiaries and there’s nothing a California probate court can do about it.  So ruled the Court of Appeal last month in Estate of Post...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Statute Requiring Automatic Revocation of Ex-Spouse’s Primary Beneficiary Designation In Life Insurance Policy Does Not Violate...

In Sveen v. Melin (No. 16-1432, filed June 11, 2018) (“Sveen”), the United States Supreme Court held that a statute which automatically revoked life insurance beneficiary designations following the policyholder’s divorce did...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

The Supreme Court - June 11, 2018

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

The Supreme Court of the United States issued four decisions today: China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, No. 17-432: In American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974) and subsequent decisions, the Court has held that...more

Allen Matkins

Will U.S. Supreme Court Decision In Life Insurance Case Affect California's Limited Liability Company Law?

Allen Matkins on

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sveen v. Melin (Case No. No. 16-1432). The case involved a dispute over life insurance proceeds between a decedent's former spouse and his children by a former...more

Saul Ewing LLP

Recent Pennsylvania Superior Court Case Addresses the Messy Business of Divorce, Postnuptial Agreements and Death

Saul Ewing LLP on

A woman who dropped divorce proceedings three days after her husband died is entitled to the proceeds from his insurance policy but cannot claim his pension benefits, according to a recent Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling...more

Lewitt Hackman

Accidental Disinheritance: Update Wills, Estate Plans Annually

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So you have an estate plan? Good for you. You funded it? Even better. But have you updated it and your will in the last year? If you haven’t, your loved ones or favorite charities may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Your...more

Lewitt Hackman

Benefits of an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust as Security for Support

Lewitt Hackman on

Divorce or separation agreements often require one spouse to maintain life insurance as security for their support obligation. Attorneys often do not address the tax implications if the insured spouse owns the policy. ...more

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