The family law attorney meets estate planning

And the meeting place is the latest ISBA Elder Law Section newsletter. Which makes sense. Elder law is a place where divorce and estate planning intersect. Chicago lawyer Michael C. Craven's article makes the point that clients need to rethink estate planning not just after divorce but as they begin planning for it. Among other tips, he offers this  list of issues for divorcing clients and their lawyers to think about (quoting him below):

• Creating a new will and/or trust that does not name the spouse as a beneficiary or fiduciary;

• If there is no will, creating a will and/or trust naming the children (or someone else if no children) as beneficiaries in order to avoid intestacy laws awarding the estate, in whole or in part, to the estranged spouse;

• Transferring property into a trust. Although this does not prevent the divorce court from treating the transferred property as “marital property” upon finalization of the divorce, it will protect the property from going into the deceased spouse’s estate, and from the estranged spouse’s right to renounce a will, if death occurs before then;

• If the client has a Power of Attorney naming the spouse as agent, consider naming a new agent;

• If the client does not have a Power of Attorney for Health Care, creating one naming someone else as the agent to avoid the estranged spouse from being able to make health care decisions under the Illinois Healthcare Surrogate Act;

• Considering severing joint tenancies; and

• Changing beneficiaries of life insurance policies.