Family Law

Fremont Divorce Attorney Discusses Securing Medical, Life, and Homeowners Insurance

By Scott Sagaria

Fremont Divorce Attorney Discusses Securing Medical, Life, and Homeowners Insurance

Securing medical, life, and homeowners insurance for yourself and your children must be considered during pre-divorce settlement negotiations with your soon-to-be ex. Insurance issues may be complicated and largely the purview of lawyers but you need to be actively involved to protect yourself and anyone who depends upon you. You should know that your life insurance policy could still cover your spouse even if you two are divorced and no longer a part of each other's lives. You need to negotiate who will be paying the premiums. If husband is to pay, he can stop paying or cash in the policy and leave you with nothing unless life insurance is a negotiated part of the divorce settlement.

To protect the children, make sure that your divorce settlement states that the children are to be kept as the beneficiary and make sure that your spouse shows proof of it each year. If your spouse allows the policy to lapse, your ex may not have to reinstate the policy unless ordered by the court. Get it in writing before the divorce is finalized. If you would like only your children to benefit financially from your life insurance policy, you will want to open a trust fund and then name the trust as the beneficiary and name a trustee to manage the proceeds. Many banks offer this service. This way your ex will never get parental control over any of the money left to your children should you die before they are of legal age.

You can also prevent your children from giving any of the money to your ex by setting up the trust fund and stipulate that the children cannot receive any of the money until they are young adults. The normal age of legal maturity for such trusts ranges from 18 to 21. You may also stipulate that the insurance proceeds be restricted to higher education use only and held in trust until your children or other heirs avail themselves of the money for education.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including divorce, paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven Northern California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, Salinas, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys: (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

Full post as published by California Family Law Blog on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).