A divorce can change many aspects of your life, including your estate plan. While a divorce can cause statutory ramifications on your probate estate, it can also cause a change in non-probate assets like life insurance policies and retirement assets.
These are all interesting features of our system and will be explored in another blog post. Today, however, our focus is on the impact of divorce on a Revocable Living Trust.
An inter vivos or “living” trust is a trust created during the trust creator’s lifetime. The revocable trust is a type inter vivos trust. By virtue of it being revocable, it allows the person who created it to change or revoke the trust during their lifetime.
So, back to the question at hand, does a divorce change or affect a revocable trust? Like most legal questions, the answer is – it depends.
A divorce can have significant consequences on the assets inside a revocable trust during the divorce depending on trust terms. However, a divorce does not always change the underlying trust itself.
The trust terms control what happens to the assets in the trust. Therefore, if the person who created the trust wants to change the beneficiaries in light of the divorce, that person would have to change the trust.
Having an experienced Wills, Trusts, and Estates Lawyer on your side will help you avoid the pitfalls and make your revocable trust match your intent.
If this article piqued your interest, please feel free to reach out to one of the many qualified Wills, Trusts, and Estate Lawyers at Thrift McLemore. We are here to help you plan for the future.
