How a Divorce Affects a Living Trust when the Grantor Dies
_

Most people think divorce proceedings in movies are just fiction. They’re half right. A divorce can be nastier and can leave one spouse penniless. That’s because a divorce is also a contest on who has legal documents over everything the couple earned throughout their marriage.

One such document is the living trust. This document is considered revocable by the one who made it. A trust is an agreement between the couple. The one who made the trust is the grantor. The spouse who has temporary authority over the assets is the trustee. The grantor and trustee agree to set aside assets for their children or beneficiaries. In case if the grantor dies and the beneficiaries are not of legal age, the trustee has the authority to manage the assets. However in the face of a divorce, the grantor can revoke his or her trust easily.

If the grantor dies before the divorce is finalized, the trustee may or may not get anything. It all depends on how the trust is worded. If the trust has a clause that says a separation can void the trust, the trustee gets nothing. A separation may not be divorce but some states and countries have different ways of identifying what a separation is. It could be a separation of more than 6 months to years.  Some trusts include the clause void if divorced.

The trustee can fight to uphold a trust that doesn’t have any clauses for revocation. The only other document that can override a trust is the grantor’s Last Will. The last will entail how the assets of the diseased spouse should be distributed. If the will says that diseased spouse is not leaving anything for the remaining spouse, then the living trust can’t counter it. Even if the remaining spouse is the representative in a living will, the last will is stronger.

Some couples file for divorce online instead of the traditional divorce. It is understood that if a couple files online divorce, they are mutually agreeing on sharing everything. It’s because an online divorce is an uncontested divorce. More than half the cases of divorce in America are considered uncontested.