Divorcing? Don’t Forget to Update Your Life Insurance

Divorce is never easy, but there’s one part of the process that can be especially tricky — updating your life insurance. Between packing up and splitting assets, it can be easy to overlook this important step. So, why exactly should you make sure to update your life insurance after a divorce?

If you have life insurance — which many people do in order to provide financial stability for their families — it’s likely that you named your former spouse as the primary beneficiary on the policy. But now that you’re no longer together, things are different. That’s why updating your life insurance policy is so important during a divorce: you want to make sure that any money from an insurance payout doesn’t end up going somewhere unintended.

At the same time, often a divorce settlement will require you to keep a certain amount of life insurance on you while naming your ex-spouse as beneficiary. Make sure you follow your legal requirements at a minimum to avoid any potential legal issue.

The first step is easy enough: Call up your insurer and let them know what’s going on with your divorce. Then they can usually help point out which documents need updating and which forms need signing. You may be required to purchase a new life insurance policy to make sure your divorce settlement as well as your family’s financial lives are in order. The good news is that we can help and it can take 10 minutes or less!