The percentage of children who live in a single-parent household has increased significantly. While estate planning for single parents is similar to estate planning for families with two parents, you should take special consideration and outline specific provisions in your estate plan if you’re a single parent due to death, divorce, or life choice. If you’re a single parent, estate planning should become a high priority.
Children often act out during a divorce. Some behaviors are more noticeable than others, meaning subtle changes in your child can slip past you if you’re not looking for them. It’s not surprising how this can happen. When you go through the divorce process, it may feel as though your world is moving a mile a minute, and you’re struggling just to keep up. Divorce involves rebuilding your life, home, and sometimes career, all while negotiating the dissolution of your marriage. Because of this, it’s easy not to be cognizant of how your children are holding up.
The only guarantee we have in life is that we’re all going to die someday. If we’re lucky enough, we’ll do this when we’re old, slipping peacefully away in our sleep. But, inevitably, it will happen to each of us regardless of age or health. Unfortunately, too many people pass away without addressing their estate planning and die without leaving a will. Dying without a will, referred to as intestate, is just one of the issues that can come from not addressing your estate planning while you’re alive.
If you’re in the middle of a divorce or about to start on one, you’re well aware of the roller coaster ride you signed on for, or your spouse signed you on for, and now you’re along for the ride whether you wanted to be on it or not. After long, busy days, I often plopped myself down on the couch, not yet ready for bed but exhausted. I needed to unwind, and I found a great way to do that was to grab a glass of wine and a bowl of popcorn and watch movies.
Once you have established your estate plan, it is important to ensure it remains sound by revisiting it at regular intervals or at key life events. One important reason is that if you fail to account for the death of someone named as a beneficiary in your will, upon your death, your estate may face significant problems as a result. Here is what can happen.
As if co-parenting during a pandemic wasn’t complicated enough, a lot of parents have a new worry to add to their plates: a widely controversial COVID-19 vaccine.
A will can be handwritten (known as a “holographic will”) so long as it meets the requirements outlined by the state in which the creator resides. In Washington, any person who is of sound mind and 18 or older may make a last will and testament.
According to researchers, imposter syndrome or imposter phenomenon (IP) “is a motivational disposition in which persons who have achieved some level of success feel like fakes or imposters.” It’s a behavior that describes those who, despite achieving high levels of success on standardized tests, earning advanced degrees, and receiving professional recognition for their accomplishments from colleagues or organizations, still fail to experience a sense of success internally. And I see it affect people during the divorce process all the time.
Are you one of the millions of individuals who moved to Washington from another state? Has the pandemic allowed you to work remotely from any location? Whether you’ve already made a move to Washington or are considering an upcoming relocation, you likely created a checklist that includes updating your address, obtaining a new driver’s license, and possibly purchasing an umbrella. Unfortunately, many people fail to add another line item to the checklist: ensuring they update their estate-planning documents.
You’d be surprised at how what you say and how you say it can make or break a discussion. As a family and divorce lawyer, writer, communicator, and a once-divorced (I’ve since remarried) co-parenting mom myself, I know how the slightest alteration in my speech can produce a different outcome in a conversation. Those “alternative endings,” in turn, can do a lot of damage by derailing my day, my week, and, most significantly, negatively impact my children’s lives in a very profound and direct manner. That’s why I’m careful about how I speak to my ex. And he’s not even a bad guy.
