Florida has long had a law partially revoking a will upon divorce; if someone has a will naming a spouse as beneficiary, and they get divorced, Florida treats the ex spouse as though they died before the other spouse. Florida has a similar law regarding revocable trusts; it cuts the ex spouse out of the trust. And this is a very good idea; sometimes people forget to revise their wills and trusts after they get divorced and otherwise the ex spouse would inherit property. Up until now, though, Florida did not have such a law for Pay on Death Accounts; bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, where the ex spouse was named as beneficiary. And I’ve seen that happen, a lot; someone gets divorced, maybe they change their will, but they forget they named the ex-spouse on a retirement account, or a CD, or an investment account or, frequently, a life insurance policy; some time later they die and the children, or the new spouse, are outraged that the ex-spouse winds up getting a chunk of money. Now, new Florida Statute 732.703 does that. Florida Statutes 732.703 However, bear in mind that this only allows the bank or the insurance company or the investment company to say “no” to the ex-spouse; it does NOT impose any liability on the company if they pay the money over to the ex-spouse. In other words, it’s up to the surviving family to contact the company and let them know that the person named as beneficiary is now an ‘ex’ spouse. Otherwise, the family is stuck suing the ex spouse. And, this does not appear to apply to “joint” accounts; where the spouses set up an account in both their names and then got divorced; if one of them dies, it looks like the account will go to the survivor, even if they weren’t married at the time. And, this does not apply to any court ordered accounts or policies; it does not apply to any accounts governed by the laws of another state and it does not apply to all types of accounts, only those specific types set out in the statute. And, this only applies to people dying after July 1, 2012; if someone died before that date, this law doesn’t apply. The point is, while this is a step in the right direction, you still need to review your estate plan and accounts, preferably with a lawyer, after you divorce. If you don’t, and you wind up dying, this new law at least gives your heirs a chance at keeping money out of the hands of the now-ex-spouse, but it isn’t perfect; the best thing you can do is your homework ahead of time, change beneficiary designations and close out joint accounts and open up new ones, if you can.
-
Recent Posts
- Terminating rental agreements and Evictions for violations of rules and leases
- Sumter County, Florida, Commissioners Defamation Lawsuit
- Mobile homes, manufactured homes, modular homes, and mobile home parks in Florida
- Florida Do Not Resuscitate Orders or DNRs’
- Advice to the New Law Student, or One L.
Recent Comments
- Admin on When you should not talk to the police
- Elisa S. Worthington on Advice to the New Law Student, or One L.
- admin on Florida does not register guns
- admin on Florida does not register guns
- Barbara Dixon on Florida does not register guns
Archives
- October 2020
- June 2018
- May 2018
- February 2018
- May 2016
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
Categories
- Asset Protection
- Business Law
- Co-Owners
- Contracts
- Criminal
- Death and Taxes
- Divorce
- Elective Share
- Estate Planning
- Fees and Costs
- Funerals
- Guardianships
- Health Care Surrogacies
- Homestead
- Insurance
- Landlord Tenant
- Partition
- Personal Injury
- Powers of Attorney
- Prenuptial Agreements
- Probate
- Real Estate
- Scams
- Uncategorized
- Will Contest
- Wills
Meta
My husband contacted his dad’s insurance company about a policy that was still in his mom’s name as beneficiary. They have been divorced for over 25 years. It was an oversight on his dad’s part because he had several policies and thought they were all changed. No changes have been made to the policy in all these years. The insurance company just said that her name is on it and so it belongs to her. They did not acknowledge the validity of this Florida state 732.703. Just curious why not. There were no changes made to make her beneficiary statue irrevocable. The policy was issued in the early 70’s.
Just because you have a law doesn’t mean people follow it. You need to file suit against the insurance company; and do so before they disburse funds to ex wife. If funds are already in ex wife’s hands you can sue her for the money, but it’s a lot easier and cleaner to sue insurance company. They will honor a court order.
You probably need to talk to a lawyer ASAP if you want to recover the money.
I’m confused by the response from admin, since the article above is specific about the fact that the law does not hold the insurance company liable if the funds are paid to the ex-spouse.
Quote from article “However, bear in mind that this only allows the bank or the insurance company or the investment company to say “no” to the ex-spouse; it does NOT impose any liability on the company if they pay the money over to the ex-spouse. In other words, it’s up to the surviving family to contact the company and let them know that the person named as beneficiary is now an ‘ex’ spouse. Otherwise, the family is stuck suing the ex spouse.”
I’m dissapointed by the recommendation to sue the insurance company. Behavior like this is what causes our rates to increase, from suits from un-informed individuals looking for an easy way out.
While the law doesn’t hold the insurance company liable if the funds are paid to ex spouse, the insurance company is also not liable if they don’t pay to ex spouse but pay to secondary beneficiary. If the insurance company isn’t willing to pay to secondary beneficiary, then you can sue them for declaratory judgment; giving insurance company chance to tell judge why they are paying to ex spouse and not secondary beneficiary. If the insurance company has a good reason, they win; if they don’t have good reason, they lose. If they don’t have good reason, then frankly, they deserve to be sued.