An experienced attorney and CPA, Illinois-based Heidi Scott has been working in the estate planning and tax law arena for several decades. The owner of Schuyler Brown Land Title, Heidi Scott is a former tax attorney with the Illinois Department of Revenue. In her private practice, she focuses on estate planning, real estate, and tax law.

A divorce is a difficult process for anyone, but it’s also an important time to review your estate planning. First, you should consider revising your will and revocable trusts. If the situation calls for it, you may need to exclude your spouse or limit his or her participation.

Furthermore, you may want to consider changing beneficiaries in your IRA, life insurance policy, and other financial vehicles. However, under federal law, you will need to wait until the divorce is finalized to remove your spouse from your retirement plan without his or her consent.

If you have any powers of attorney that involve your spouse, it may be a good idea to revisit those. You may want to keep your spouse as a designee, but you should at least review this document with an attorney to make sure the powers still align with your wishes. And, you may want to establish one or more trusts that will govern any assets that your minor children inherit from you.