Steps to Take Immediately After a Divorce
The moment your divorce is finalized, you may feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off your shoulders. However, your work isn’t done quite yet. There are a few steps you should take immediately following your divorce to get yourself organized and prepared to begin your new life.
The following are a few tips as you approach this process:
- Review your Agreement and judgment: Most divorce cases settle long before they go to trial. The terms you have settled on will be included in the court’s divorce judgment, which is the official order you must follow. Be sure to sit down and read the agreement judgment carefully so you know the responsibilities of both you and your former spouse.
- Transfer assets: Your judgment likely includes orders on how you will divide your marital assets. If you have money in joint accounts, you should close the accounts after dividing the assets. If a QDRO is required to divide retirement assets, there are certain steps that need to be taken for said Orders to be prepared, including payment of fees.
- Check insurance policies: You may need to revise your insurance policies for your new life situation, which could include adjusting coverage levels or changing beneficiaries on life insurance policies.
- Revise estate plans: Go through your estate planning documents and make sure you have removed your former spouse as a beneficiary from wills and trusts, if that’s what you want to do. You may also need to change orders on healthcare directives or power of attorney documents to ensure your former spouse does not have any capacity to make important decisions on your behalf in an emergency.
- Change passwords: If your former spouse knew your usernames and passwords to any of your online accounts, you should go through and change those passwords to ensure your digital security.
For further guidance on the steps you should take after you complete the divorce process, contact a trusted divorce attorney at Jakubowski, Robertson, Maffei, Goldsmith and Tartaglia, LLP.