After a divorce, most people assume that the divorce decree has taken care of everything relating to their shared assets and finances. Unfortunately, this is not always true. After a divorce decree is signed, there are several important steps that need to be addressed to fully complete the process, particularly in the area of estate planning. One vital step after a divorce is to update estate planning documents and beneficiary designations, or to get an estate plan in place if one has never been prepared. For example, if your planning documents were based on a marriage relationship that no longer exists, it is probably necessary to update your documents to reflect your desires for your executors and agents. Also, it usually the case that …
The Problem. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for life insurance policies to be purchased by young adults who then bury the policy documents in a file drawer but keep paying premiums every year. Even though the policy is usually bought to provide a safety net for young children, when the children become adults the parents may never fully inform the children about the policies that may still exist. In addition to uninformed family members, an added problem is that some life insurers have historically not been proactive about pursuing payment of death benefits to beneficiaries. In 2016, 60 Minutes aired a story covering the audits of dozens of large insurance companies who agreed to pay more than $7.5 billion in back death benefits …