Harton Law Firm

Accessible, Convenient, Affordable Legal Services for the People of Wyoming

Estate Planning

Post Divorce Checklist

The divorce is final. Now what?

The act of getting married creates lots of legal consequences on its own. In addition, people often create additional legal ties during their marriage. Some of these connections are not automatically broken when you get that divorce decree.

Here is a list of things you should do after your divorce:

  • Bank accounts
    • Remove your spouse from your bank accounts
    • Remove your spouse as the pay on death (POD) beneficiary on your accounts
    • Close all joint accounts
  • Credit Accounts
    • Credit cards
      • remove your spouse as an authorized user on all of your accounts
      • close all joint accounts, if you can
      • “freeze” any joint accounts you can’t close, so nothing else can be charged
    • Mortgages and other loans
      • Monitor payments on joint loans assigned to your spouse, so you can take action if they don’t make the payment
      • Pay all loans assigned to you on time, and try to pay them off, or refinance them solely into your name, as soon as possible
  • Vehicle titles
    • Get new titles for all vehicles awarded to you, with you as sole owner
    • Make sure your spouse gets new titles for vehicles awarded to them, with them as sole owner (so you are not liable)
    • Pay off the loans on vehicles awarded to you as soon as possible, so that you can put the titles solely in your own name
  • Insurance
    • Health insurance
      • If your spouse is insured through your work, inform your employer when the divorce is final. Do not tell them to stop covering your spouse. Let them do that on their own.
      • If you were covered through your spouse’s work, consider taking COBRA coverage until you can get your own coverage; get your own coverage as soon as possible
    • Car insurance
      • Remove your spouse as an insured on all vehicles awarded to you, after the title is in your name
      • Remove your ex-spouse as an authorized driver of vehicles awarded to you, after the title is in your name
      • Make sure Monitor the insurance policy on all vehicles awarded to your spouse, until you are no longer on the title, so that you can take action if policy is not paid
    • Life Insurance
      • Contact your work’s HR department and change the beneficiary on all work related life insurance policies
      • Change the beneficiary on all other life insurance policies that you may have
  • Retirement accounts
    • Contact your HR department at work, and change the beneficiary on your retirement, 401k, 457 and other deferred compensation plan accounts
    • Inform them if any portion of such accounts were awarded to your spouse in your decree
    • If you were awarded a portion of your spouse’s retirement, 401k or other such accounts, contact your spouse’s employer and ask them for the procedure to get those things set over to you, or contact us for help with that
  • Investment accounts
    • If investment accounts were split by the divorce, separate the accounts as soon as possible
    • Change the beneficiary on your accounts
    • If you were awarded a portion of your spouse’s account, contact the investment company to find out how to get your portion set over to you.
  • Estate plan
    • If you have a will or trust, consider revising them
    • If you and your spouse have minor children:
      • Make a will or trust, if you don’t want your ex to control your money in the event of your death
      • Amend your existing estate plan for the same reason

The above list is a good starting point for reviewing your legal situation after your divorce. However, each person’s situation is different. The important thing is that you give these things some thought and attention after your divorce is final.

By Steve Harton

What Does JTWROS Mean?

You may have seen JTWROS written after your name on your car title, but what does it mean? JTWROS means Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship. But what does that mean?

When two or more people own property such as a car together, they can own it in a couple of ways. One way is as tenants in common, the other is joint tenants with rights of survivorship.

The difference becomes important when one of the co-owners dies.

Tenants in Common

If a person co-owns property as a tenant in common, and then dies, then his heirs get his share of the property. So if you co-own a car with your boyfriend, and your boyfriend dies, then you might be a co-owner of the car with his parents or his kids.

Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship

If on the other hand, a person co-owns property as a JTWROS, and then dies, then the other co-owner(s) receive the property.

This is why people use JTWROS as a way to avoid probate.

It is also useful for unmarried couples to own property like this together. If something happens to one of them, then the other gets the property. It does not matter who the heirs are, or who is in the decedent’s will. The property passes outside of probate.

When is JTWROS Not a Good Idea?

It is not a good idea when you want the property to pass to the dying co-owner’s heirs. For instance, if a parent has four children, and each of the four kids have children of their own. The parent might want each of their kids’ share of the property to pass on to their own children.

Conclusion

Holding property as Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship can be a good idea. However, you have to know what it means in order to know if you really want to own property as JTWROS.

By Steve Harton