Devises After A Divorce, What The 4th District Court Of Appeal Ruled On An Ex-Wife Who Was Still Listed In Her Deceased Ex-Husband’s Will.

Are you going through a divorce in Florida? If you have an estate plan in Palm Beach that lists your soon to be ex-spouse as a beneficiary you may want to make changes as soon as possible.

• The 4th District Court Of Appeal recently ruled on a case where an ex-husband died after the final judgment for dissolution of marriage, but left a will which listed his nowex-wife as a beneficiary.
• The case is Helen  Carroll v. Stuart G. Israelson.
• Although the ex-wife attempted to enforce the  Florida will as valid, the court held that rule 732.507(2) of the Probate code protected the deceased husband who’s intentions were not to leave everything to his ex-wife post divorce.
• Rule 732.507(2) states that any provision of a will executed by a married person that affects the spouse of that person shall become void upon the divorce upon the divorce of that person or upon the dissolution or annulment of the marriage.
• Though the rule seems clear enough, in this case argument arose over a provision that left some assets of the deceased ex-husband for the benefit of his ex-wifes niece and nephew and not directly to his ex-wife.
• The Florida Court ruled that such a provision even though not directly affecting the spouse, is still void under the statute.
• The court went on to explain that divorces are often fraught with animosity, and it is reasonable to expect that a person going through a divorce often resist the idea of their own mortality and forget to make the requisite changes to their Palm Beach estate plan.
• The Florida rule was established for this very type of situation to protect a person going through a divorce from their inattentiveness to estate planning details.
• In this situation, even though the rule is clear, both parties had to retain Florida probate litigators to resolve the issue.

For more on this interesting case out of Florida follow this link, 4th District Court Of Appeals, opinions released 7-1-15