Divorce and Estate Planning

    Stephen King is famous for writing horror stories.  Sometimes though, horror stories write themselves into people's lives.

    Several years ago, I received a call from a distraught father.  His adult son had been in a severe motorcycle accident and was on life support at the hospital.  The father, of course, wanted the doctors to do everything they could to save the son.  There was just one complication.

    The son was married but going through a hotly contested divorce.  His wife had already moved out and moved to California to live with her new boyfriend.  The father had called me as soon as he discovered that the wife had flown back into town to sign documents to take her husband off of life support and to let him die.  While he was still alive, she then flew back "home" to California.

    While the above case is extreme, any lawyer who has practiced family law for a long time has had some circumstance where documents prepared by their client or the other party came into effect when one of the parties either died or became incapacitated.  Just because you are going through a divorce, the law does not change.  The will that you previously drafted or the medical or financial power of attorney that you executed, is still in effect.  For example, if your will provides that all of your property goes to your wife, the fact that you die while a divorce is pending will not change that bequest.  Once the divorce is granted, those documents are either changed or become invalid by law, but not until then. 

    We recommend that all clients execute a new will and new powers of attorney upon initiating a divorce.  Very few of them actually do so and the results of that can be simply disastrous.  This is a risk that you absolutely do not have to take.  If we can help you with issues such as this, please contact the Bob Leonard Law Group at (817) 336-8500 or visit our website.

What if I owe more than my house is worth?

            The headline in a recent issue of the Fort Worth Star Telegram stated that "fewer area homeowners in negative equity".  The article discussed that in the Fort Worth/Arlington area, the number of homes "underwater" had been reduced from 12 percent to 11 percent.  Rather than 45,175 properties having negative equity, only 42,705 properties had negative equity in a recent survey.

            Wait.  What does this have to do with my divorce.  Well it has quite a bit to do with it actually.

            Just a few years ago it was rare for our firm to handle divorces in which a house had no equity.  Generally the fight before was over who got the house or who got the equity from the house or how was it split.  Now, instead of fighting over who gets the house or the proceeds from the house, divorcing couples are having to determine who gets to pay off a debt when there is a house that will not support it.  Even if only 11½ percent of all homes have negative equity, our experience is telling us that a far higher percentage have negative equity in a divorce.  That, of course, is understandable.

            Typically, one party has income to support the debt and the other party does not.  That only complicates the situation.

            At the Bob Leonard Law Group we try to help our clients navigate these treacherous waters.  Sometimes we can arrange for the lender to take a deed in lieu of foreclosure.  Sometimes it is simply better to let the lender foreclose on the property.  Sometimes one of the spouses believes that the market will go up and we work hard to obtain financing or a creative solution to allow that spouse to keep the house even if it is currently in a negative equity status.

            While we cannot take either spouse's name off of the mortgage (that is a contract with the mortgage company and the court has no authority over them), sometimes because of creative financing or some other effort we can help a client to get out from under that burden.  Of course, sometimes the facts are such that that is just impossible.

            If we at the Bob Leonard Law Group can help you to resolve your divorce issues, whether because of negative equity in a house or otherwise, please give us a call at 817‑336‑8500.  Our attorneys are experienced in looking for creative solutions to problems such as this. Let us help.