Recently, cases have been issued by the United States Supreme Court and the Virginia appellate courts addressing what happens when the parties’ divorce, a court order or agreement does not require the ex-spouse to be maintained as a beneciary of life insurance or retirement, but alas the spouse dies without changing his/her beneficiary from the ex-spouse.
It is important after a divorce to take steps to protect yourself in the event of your death. Some steps include but are not limited to: (1) make sure your will is updated; (2) determine who you want to make health decisions and other decisions for you and review your advanced health care directive and power of attorney accordingly; (3) update your HIPPA forms with your providers; (4) be sure all beneficiary designations and POD accounts have been changed.
