The purpose of divorce is to provide an orderly way for people who have legally intertwined their lives to begin unwinding them. The two major ways that law does this are through property division and child custody decisions. Yet, there are other parts of people's lives that are tied together during a marriage that also need to be dealt with. One of the biggest areas of law where that is true is in the estate planning context. A divorce can have major implications for things like wills, trusts, and insurance policies. Some of these instruments change automatically when a divorce occurs, while others require manual updating by the spouses. Re-examining estate planning after divorce is critical, yet one area that many people overlook.

Automatic Revocations

There are a variety of documents that update automatically in the event that a couple divorces. One of the biggest is a person's will. Section 4-7(b) of the Illinois Probate Act deals with what happens to wills in the event of a divorce. It automatically invalidates any bequest to the ex-spouse in the will. However, it is important to realize that the law does not update the will with new presumptions that the property will go to someone else. Instead, the property that would have gone to the spouse passes to the people it would have if it were not included in the will at all. This makes it important to manually update a will following a divorce to ensure that the property that would have gone to the spouse is properly redirected. This is especially true in cases where the will provided some decision-making authority to the ex-spouse, which will now be left out entirely.

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Divorce can result from many different issues, but one of the most serious thing s that may cause a divorce is domestic violence. Domestic violence can take many different forms, and many people do not understand what is currently considered domestic abuse. The issue of domestic violence affects people of all genders, and people who suspect that they may be be victims of it should understand the definition. They should also understand their options in the event that they choose to seek a divorce from their partner.

What Is Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse is a term that has different meanings for different people. The National Domestic Violence Hotline has a variety of different behaviors for different situations. In a sense, all of the behaviors relate to a person's controlling, possessive aspects. However, there are certain things that a partner may do that can trigger concerns about domestic abuse. These include:

• Physical violence such as choking, hitting, slapping or beating;
• Threats of intimidation of physical violence;
• Shaming or embarrassment, which can include demeaning remarks to your friends, their friends, or even your children;
• Undue control of the finances, such as issuing an overly strict budget or tracking every flow of money that leaves the household; or
• the destruction of property or threats to harm personal property or pets.

In general, domineering threats or overly controlling behaviors can constitute domestic violence in some circumstances. This lay definition tracks fairly well with the definition of abuse set out in the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986, which defines abuse as “physical abuse, harassment, intimidation of a dependent, interference with personal liberty or willful deprivation.”

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Divorce and bankruptcy are often intertwined events in people's lives. The added stress of mounting debt or a lost job can hasten the end of a difficult marriage. The two processes are also both somewhat similar from a legal standpoint, at least as far as they are both legal proceedings designed to divide a set amount of property, albeit quite differently. However, the fact that these two processes involve property division becomes important for how they interact. Yet, how they interact also depends on whether the bankruptcy comes before or after the divorce.

Bankruptcy before Divorce

Filing bankruptcy before the divorce may have some advantages, but it can also necessitate making decisions about the bankruptcy during the divorce.

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People often ignore the possible benefits of prenuptial agreements, thinking of them as documents that only the wealthy need. Even some people who do think they would benefit from a prenup avoid them because they are nervous about how their future spouse will react to the idea. While all couples should consider the potential upside of prenups, there is one group of couples who can find them particularly useful: couples entering into second or third marriages.

These couples often see specific benefits from prenups for a variety of reasons. First, the couple is likely to consist of people who are more well-established in life and who already have their own finances. Second, the couple's members may have children from prior marriages whose interests need protecting. Third, the notion of a prenup may be more palatable to people who already understand the realities of a divorce.

More Established Finances

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Everyone going into a marriage expects it to last forever. They would not be entering into it if they did not. Yet, the reality is that a large portion of marriages fail. Unwinding a marriage through the divorce process can be time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally draining. Fortunately, Illinois law provides couples with the opportunity to protect themselves from this hassle beforehand. The state allows couples to prepare prenups, short for prenuptial agreements or premarital agreements. These agreements allow couples to agree on issues of property division and spousal support in advance of the marriage in case a divorce ever happened.

Despite these benefits, many people approach the subject of prenups with some trepidation. The documents have a stigma that people are planning for the divorce or they do not have faith in the marriage. However, that is not what prenups are about. They are simply preparation for a rainy day. It is does not take a lack of faith to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

What A Prenup Is

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