Updating Your Accounts in Divorce
Divorce is not only emotionally complicated—but it also complicates your household accounts. Your insurance policies are especially critical. When you’re going through the turmoil of divorce, it’s easy to lose sight of the insurance accounts to which you rarely need to pay much attention on a regular basis. It’s important, however, to remember to appropriately update all your insurance accounts once your divorce is finalized.
Health Insurance
Health insurance can be especially tricky—and you must promptly deal with it because you don’t want a gap in your coverage. If you’re staying on your former spouse’s health insurance policy, you’ll probably need to go through COBRA, a federal insurance law that has strict time limits for maintaining continued coverage. If you have minor children, you most likely established their health insurance coverage in your divorce, but don’t simply assume that this coverage has gone into effect—take the time to ensure that their coverage is properly in place.
Life Insurance and Disability Insurance
You probably have at least one life insurance policy, and you’ll need to determine if you’re going to change your beneficiary from your ex-spouse after a divorce. In addition, some policies automatically revoke the spouse beneficiary upon divorce. Carefully examine each of your life insurance policies and determine what is best for your situation. If you are keeping your ex-spouse as your beneficiary, don’t assume that you don’t have to update your policy. This is especially important for employment-related policies.
Divorces often include stipulations regarding life insurance and disability insurance beneficiaries. If, in your divorce, your spouse agreed to include either you or your children on such a policy, follow up on the matter. Your divorce settlement should provide you with written entitlement-to-policy information, and you should contact the insurance company to request the updated information and request notice of any changes that get made to the policy.
Car Insurance
Car insurance may seem like a relatively minor detail—but it’s a detail that matters. Contact your auto insurer and make sure that your policy accurately reflects your new car ownership and driver status (including children of driving age, if applicable). Make sure all title information has been updated after the household cars were divided in the divorce.
Going through a divorce probably won’t leave you eager to go digging into your insurance policies, but this is important work that can go overlooked and cause problems later. Gather your policies, compile the pertinent contact information, and make the calls and appointments that will help you put this task behind you and provide you with the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’re taking care of your family’s future.
Consult with a Divorce Attorney in Richmond, Texas
If you are contemplating divorce, you need a skilled Texas divorce lawyer. Divorce is stressful and can quickly become complicated. Ensuring that the decisions related to your insurance policies protect your best interests is critical. The Vendt Law Firm is here to help with all matters related to divorce. Schedule a consultation today by calling our office at (832) 276-9474.
