Your divorce decree does not update your estate plan. Your former spouse may still be named on your retirement account, your life insurance, your healthcare proxy, and your power of attorney. Massachusetts law revokes your will automatically, but nothing else. The rest requires deliberate action, and most people do not take it.
What Massachusetts Law Does Automatically
Under M.G.L. c. 190B § 2-804, divorce automatically revokes any provision in your will leaving property to a former spouse, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor or other fiduciary. So if your will leaves everything to your spouse and names them as executor, those provisions are revoked on divorce, as if the former spouse had predeceased you.
This automatic revocation applies only to your will. It does not apply to:
- Beneficiary designations on 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts
- Life insurance policy beneficiary designations
- Payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designations on bank and brokerage accounts
- Joint tenancy with right of survivorship in real estate
- Trust documents naming a former spouse as trustee or beneficiary
- Healthcare proxy designations
- Durable power of attorney documents
This is not a theoretical concern. There are real cases, upheld by courts including the U.S. Supreme Court, in which a former spouse received a 401(k) because the account owner died before updating the beneficiary designation, and the divorce decree (no matter what it said) could not override the account's beneficiary form.
The divorce decree does not automatically change your beneficiary designations. Even if your separation agreement says your ex waives all claims to your retirement accounts, that waiver does not update the plan's beneficiary form. You must contact each account administrator and complete a new beneficiary designation form. This must happen at the plan level, an attorney's letter is not enough.
What to Update Immediately After Divorce
Will
While Massachusetts law revokes ex-spouse provisions, your will may be left with gaps, no executor named, no alternate beneficiaries named. A new will is almost always necessary.
Retirement Account Beneficiaries
Contact every 401(k), 403(b), IRA, and pension plan administrator. Complete new beneficiary designation forms. Keep copies. Check again annually.
Life Insurance
Contact your insurer directly. Check both primary and contingent beneficiaries. If minor children are designated, consider whether a trust would be more appropriate than a direct designation.
Bank & Investment Accounts
Review payable-on-death and transfer-on-death designations on all accounts. Remove your ex-spouse and designate new beneficiaries or use a trust.
Healthcare Proxy
Your ex-spouse is no longer your healthcare agent by your wishes, but the form itself still names them. Execute a new healthcare proxy naming the person you trust to make medical decisions.
Durable Power of Attorney
If your ex is named as attorney-in-fact, revoke and replace the document. Your incapacity without a valid power of attorney could require a court-supervised conservatorship.
Revocable Trust
If you have a living trust, review the trustee succession, beneficiary designations, and any provisions that favor your former spouse. The trust may need to be amended or restated.
Guardianship Designations
If your will names your former spouse as guardian for your children (in the event both parents die), this provision requires deliberate reconsideration. Massachusetts courts will consider the living parent first, but a nominated guardian matters if both parents die.
Planning for Children After Divorce
Post-divorce estate planning with children requires special attention. If you leave assets directly to minor children, they cannot legally manage them, a court-supervised guardianship of the estate may be required. Creating a trust that holds assets for your children until they reach a responsible age (often 25 or later) gives you control over how and when they receive their inheritance while avoiding court oversight.
Who you name as trustee also matters after divorce. Your former spouse, even if they are a co-parent, may not be the right choice as trustee of assets you are leaving to your children.
Don't Wait Until the Divorce Is Final
In Massachusetts, you cannot change beneficiary designations on jointly held accounts or take certain other unilateral financial actions once a divorce complaint has been filed, automatic financial restraining orders apply in most cases. But you can, and should, consult with an estate planning attorney during the divorce process to plan the updates you will make immediately upon the divorce becoming final.
The window between your divorce being final and your estate plan being updated is the most dangerous period in your financial life. The longer it stays open, the more at risk you are.