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You are here: Home / Articles / Estate Planning / Dying Before the Divorce is Final

Dying Before the Divorce is Final

May 18, 2017 By Patricia Barrett

Do You Want To Leave Your Property To Your Spouse If You Die Before Your Divorce Becomes Final?

Filing for divorce does not remove your spouse from your will as a beneficiary or an executor. You will have to wait until your divorce becomes final to remove your spouse from your will. Unless you want to take the chance on leaving your property to your spouse, you need to revoke your present will and make a new will now.

§69. Texas Probate Code Voidness Due to Divorce

(a) If, after making a will, the testator is divorced or the testator’s marriage is annulled, all provisions in the will in favor of the testator’s former spouse, or appointing such spouse to any fiduciary capacity under the will or with respect to the estate or person of the testator’s children, must be read as if the former spouse failed to survive the testator, and shall be null and void and of no effect unless the will expressly provided otherwise.

(b) A person who is divorced from the decedent or whose marriage to the decedent has been annulled is not a surviving spouse unless, by virtue of a subsequent marriage, the person is married to the decedent at the time of death.

There are no laws that require how your spouse uses the property inherited under your will. Your spouse is required only to support the children of this marriage until they turn 18 or finish high school unless your child becomes disabled before the age of 18.

Copyright 2003 – Louis A. Barrelli

Filed Under: Articles, Estate Planning

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