Your life changed. Your estate plan didn't.

Divorce and the death of a spouse are two of the most critical triggers for an estate plan review. After a divorce, Arizona law (A.R.S. § 14-2804) automatically revokes certain provisions naming your former spouse, but it doesn't cover everything, especially beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance. After the death of a spouse, your entire plan needs restructuring: trusts may need to be split or restated, agents need to be replaced, and your plan needs to reflect your new situation as a single person.

The same legal reality

Whether your marriage ended through divorce or the death of your spouse, the legal reality is the same: the estate plan you built as a couple no longer works. Every document references a person who is either no longer your partner or no longer alive. Your agents, trustees, beneficiaries, guardianship designations, and asset distribution plans all need to be reconsidered.

This is emotional work, and we approach it with sensitivity. But it's also urgent work. Every day that passes with outdated documents is a day your family is exposed to outcomes you didn't intend.

What Arizona law does automatically after divorce

Under A.R.S. § 14-2804, a divorce automatically revokes provisions in your will and trust that benefit your former spouse, including their role as beneficiary, trustee, agent, or guardian. This is helpful, but it is not complete protection.

It applies to your will and trust. It does not touch most asset types governed by contract or federal law.

What Arizona law does not change

Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts (401(k)s, IRAs), life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts are governed by federal law or contract law, not by Arizona's automatic revocation statute. If your ex-spouse is still named as beneficiary on your 401(k), they will receive those funds when you die, regardless of your divorce decree or your will.

This is one of the most common and costly mistakes in post-divorce estate planning. Updating every designation on every account is the single most important action item after a divorce.

Your action items after divorce

Update every beneficiary designation on every account. Execute a new will or trust that reflects your current wishes. Name new agents on your financial power of attorney and healthcare directive. If you have children, review and update guardianship designations. Review your life insurance (both the beneficiary and whether the coverage amount still makes sense).

We recommend updating your plan within 30 days of your divorce being finalized. If you're currently going through a divorce, we can begin planning now so documents are ready to execute as soon as the decree is entered.

After the death of a spouse

If you had a joint revocable trust, it likely needs to be split into a survivor's trust and a decedent's trust, or restated entirely. The provisions that applied to a married couple no longer apply to a surviving single person.

If your deceased spouse was your healthcare agent, financial power of attorney agent, or successor trustee, those roles are now vacant. You need to name new people immediately. Accounts that named your spouse as beneficiary may also need to be updated.

A new distribution plan

Your original plan likely distributed assets as a couple: everything to the surviving spouse, then to children. Now you're the last parent. Your plan needs to address what happens directly to your children, including guardianship if they're minors, trust provisions, and distribution timing.

If remarriage is on the horizon, your plan should account for it, especially if you have children from your prior marriage. A blended family plan with a QTIP trust or similar structure protects your children while providing for your new spouse.