How does marriage or divorce impact my existing will?

In my previous two blogs in this series, I’ve discussed the importance of having a will so that you can specifically name the person or people who you want to inherit your estate.  The difference in today’s blog is that we are assuming you already have a will.  

What happens when you get married, but you don’t update your will?
The good news is that North Carolina law will prevent a surviving spouse from getting nothing with their spouses passes away.  In North Carolina, we have what is called “an Elective Share.”  That means that a spouse, whether or not there is a will, and whether or not they are omitted from a will, can elect to take a share. The amount of the share is determined by statute.  I will not go into specifics here, but if a spouse is omitted from a will, they can take a percentage of the deceased spouse’s estate (not just their probate estate, but everything, including life insurance proceeds, stocks and bonds, etc.), and the percentage is based upon the number of years they have been married. So this is good – if you have a will and you get married, but you pass away before you can revise your will, your surviving spouse will not be left out in the cold.  However, as we discussed in a previous blog, if you intend for your spouse to inherit 100% of your estate, you may need to revise your will.

Now, let’s say you have a will, you’ve left property to your spouse, but then you get divorced:
What happens if you do not update your will after a divorce?
Well, there’s good news here, too.  In North Carolina, the divorced spouse will get nothing under the will, and if you have the spouse listed as an executor, trustee, or guardian, the spouse will not be permitted to serve as one of those, either.  However, I still recommend that a divorced person revise their will.  There may be other provisions in the will indirectly impacted by the divorce that are not automatically revoked.  For example, maybe your wife’s sister was to serve as your successor executor, and you’d prefer someone from your own family to serve now?  Maybe you had provided for your husband’s step-child in your will and you would like to remove the step-child?  These provisions are not automatically revoked upon divorce.
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So, as you can see, North Carolina law does a great job protected spouses from unintentional disinheritance and from their ex-spouses inheriting.  However, a revised Will will do an even better job at making sure your wishes are carried out.