[quote=flu]Actually, a good portion of people don’t have a living trust until it’s too late to begin with. Think about the implications of that one…[/quote]
flu, this is true with people, who, even if terminally ill, fear death. It’s also true with people who are not strong inside and don’t want their personal convictions being made known, for fear of “making waves.” If these people have substantial assets, they don’t realize how many MORE waves will be made if they do nothing and die intestate.
[quote=flu]….The other thing is once someone gets remarried, quite often living trusts rewritten..Afterall, a good portion of them are revocable…And if the spouse remarries and has (new kids) or such, he/she can do whatever he/she wants with it and redistribute it however he/she sees fit……
This also has interesting implications if the spouse remarries and either dies or gets a divorce. (I’ve seen those too)…….[/quote]
flu, divorce agreements/judgments and (re)marriage licenses trump all previous unrevoked joint trusts or wills naming a former (then current) spouse as an heir. Former spouses do not have any rights of inheritance, except what is specifically provided for in their divorce agreement or judgment. In a contested probate proceeding, a CA judge will throw out all former-spouse claims unless they can prove the $$, benefit or item they are seeking from the estate was given to them or court-ordered to be paid to them in a divorce agreement or judgment.
There is an exception. If a person has to divide a defined benefit plan with a spouse to comply with a (domestic) court order and after divided, that former spouse dies before making application for retirement on that plan, than the orig. owner-spouse (earning the defined benefit plan) can petition the court to return their deceased former spouse’s portion back to them and submit those new court orders to the plan as the plan will not pay anyone an annuity but the owner and/or their spouse.
If the former deceased spouse has even received .01 in annuities from the plan or any medical ins. benefits at all from it, then the living spouse (orig. owner of the plan) has no recourse. They lose the portion given to their former spouse in a divorce, even if that deceased spouse was paid very little in benefits before they died.
Conversely, if the (defined benefit) plan owner dies first, leaving his/her former spouse to collect their already divided portion, this is all the former spouse is entitled to. The portion owned by the plan-earner disappears with their death, even if the decedent never made application for retirement.
In a nutshell, if you are divorced and still haven’t updated your will and trust for your current status and happen to unexpectedly die, your former spouse is ONLY entitled to whatever was agreed to/ordered in your divorce. If they have already been paid, then they get nothing.
