Settlement Checklist

After you officially end your marriage, there are some steps remaining for you to take to completely ensure a fresh start for yourself:

• Your Will:  If you have a will and you included your spouse in it, it’s time to get a new will drawn up. Be sure to destroy the old one, as well as any copies of it. 
• Power of Attorney: If you completed a form giving your partner the right to make financial decisions or complete financial transactions for you, you need to destroy the original and send letters to anyone you may have given copies to (such as banks, stockbrokers, real estate agents, etc.), then notify them that you are revoking it and ask that copies be returned to you.
• Health Care Directives: If you named your spouse or partner as your proxy for making health care decisions, or gave them the right to choose treatments for you, make sure the original document is destroyed and ask for copies back from any medical care provider you gave this to. Have a new document drawn up listing someone else you trust with your health care decisions.
• Funeral Instructions: If you executed documents that gave your former better half the right to make funeral decisions for you, destroy this document along with any copies.
• Beneficiaries:  If you listed your spouse as a beneficiary on life insurance or a pension or retirement plan, contact the company and revoke the beneficiary designation and name somebody else. Note:  If you have children, it’s likely that your agreement requires a minimal amount to your spouse as child support insurance.

Contact us for help with your estate planning needs.

• Security: Change locks, passwords, usernames, access codes, and so on. Be sure that you have closed all joint accounts and credit cards.
• Credit Report: Obtain a copy of your credit report after divorce. You can obtain one free report each year. Check the record for accounts that you have closed.
• Name Changes: If one or both of you changed your names after you married, you may now wish to change your names once you are apart. Take the necessary steps to make sure that change is noted on your driver’s license, passport, social security card, bank accounts, ATM card, paycheck, health insurance, and any other pertinent documents.

No matter where you live in Massachusetts, contact the divorce lawyers and family law attorneys from The Massachusetts Family Law Group.  We represent every sort of divorce matter you could ever imagine at our offices in Norwood, Andover, Plymouth and on Cape Cod.

From here, you may want to view the chronology of a divorce action in the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court.

We accept all major credit cards and offer a 30-minute no-obligation initial consultation.  Contact us to schedule an appointment, or call (800) 910-DIVORCE.