Divorced? Do not forget to change your life insurance beneficiary

There's a lot that takes place when a marriage dissolves. Not only is it an emotional time, but all assets acquired when a couple has been together also to be divided. An important asset that must be supported, but might not come immediately to mind, is a life insurance policy. While many couples name their spouse as the beneficiary of their life insurance policy when they are together, it is most likely that they do not want this remains the case after divorce.

Why do so many people fail to make this change and the death benefit of their political winds up going to their former spouse? Simply put, they forget. This is a detail that gets overlooked with all the other things that need attention at such a time. Unless you contact your life insurance provider and advise them of the change, the beneficiaries of your policy will remain in effect, regardless of division.

Making the change is easy

Changing the beneficiary on your life insurance policy is easy. Simply contact the life insurance company, request a change of beneficiary form and fill in the relevant forms. It is a good idea, too, to ensure that this change is noted in any other paperwork surrounding your living will or your estate, so there is no confusion after departure.

There is also a good idea to check if your workplace insurance policy can be modified to reflect a beneficiary other than your former spouse. You may find that your work policy will not allow you to name specific people (ie, close relatives such as children) that your beneficiaries and that some policies will actually prohibit you from making a change of beneficiary in certain situations.

Check policies and beneficiaries of surrounding life insurance laws in your state to see what changes you have the right to do and when. In some states, for example, you may have to automatically appoint a new spouse as beneficiary of the death benefit of a policy.

A new spouse in the picture

If you divorce and planning on getting married soon after your divorce, you will have many things to think about, especially if you have children from a previous marriage. You may want to consider creating a trust to name a beneficiary, instead of just blindly list your soon-to-be spouse, especially if the policy was originally planned to take care of your children.

Most likely you have taken the life insurance policy to protect your children financially if something happened to you. Make sure you do not do anything that could jeopardize the original plan. If a trust is not something you want to do or can not afford to do, you may want to consider talking to your life insurance advisor for a separate policy and plan for the new marriage. This way you ensure that the original policy did what you intended, which is to take care of your children.

Get the billing right

One more thing to remember. Who pays for the policy? If your former spouse was paid for the policy, you must ensure that you get the invoice updated. This will ensure that there is no chance the policy expires by the non-payment.

You should talk to your life insurance challenge to advise and ensure that you get sound advice. After all, these are the ones you leave behind that will be left to clean all that you do not take care of now

List of things to do :.

• Talk to advise you in life insurance for advice
• Contact the life insurance company to get the change of beneficiary forms
• Check if your professional life insurance policy beneficiary can be changed
• Talk to your lawyer about the establishment of a trust
• Consider getting a policy separate cover for a new marriage
• Make sure the billing is updated and current