Divorce and Estate Planning

When I talk with people about their estate planning, including Massachusetts revocable living trusts or Massachusetts last will, we discuss how a divorce of a child or other beneficiary may be affected.

If a beneficiary has received their inheritance by the time of their own divorce, then it is possible that part of the inheritance can be given up.  It depends on several factors.

A divorce judge can decide whom gets what of the couple if they cannot agree between themselves.  If the other party has received an inheritance and the couple lived on that other inheritance, the judge may be likely to allocate the second inheritance more equally between the divorcing persons.