BREAKING NEWS! DIVORCE EQUALS DEATH!
Just kidding, if that was the case, lawyers like myself
would certainly be out of businesses (and living a pretty sad life). But this
is, believe it or not, a true statement of law when it comes to the question,
“What happens to my will if I get divorced?”
The law in Georgia is summed up as follows: if you have a
valid will and get divorced, your ex-spouse is treated as if they had died
before you did (which is termed “pre-deceased”). So what does that mean for you? Your former spouse will be treated as
if they had died before you-meaning they cannot inherit under the will. Problem
solved!
Not so fast, what if you die while your divorce is pending? Different
result. What if you and your ex-spouse have children? Well, then they may take the gift, but that’s not
certain either. And at this point, you will no longer be around to say whom you
want to take the inheritance instead. It
is likely that your will should be revisited and revised after divorce.
What happens to your will if you remarry? That’s the even
scarier part—your will is revoked entirely
in Georgia upon a subsequent marriage – meaning, your will is null and
void, and none of your property will pass as you may have desired. Take, for example, Hoyt Cromer. Hoyt tried to make his marriage work,
but he just couldn’t do it, and he and his wife divorced.
Hoyt had executed a will in 1961, a few months, before his
divorce. He then gave love another shot (à
la Kim Kardashian) and remarried in
1963. When the time came for Hoyt
to meet his maker, his brother probated his will, but his new wife challenged
the will-saying that her marriage to Hoyt revoked the 1961 will. The Court then
held that unless Hoyt’s will contained a clear, magical language, that the will
was “in contemplation of” Hoyt’s new wife, it was totally revoked.*
As you can see, there are all sorts of “X-Factors” at play when probate law
and divorce law meet.
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*Facts based on the case of Johnson v. Cromer, 234 Ga. 73(1975).
