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.