Orange County Divorce Lawyer Blog

A few days ago I blogged about the ATROs that go into effect upon the filing of a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. Today's blog will focus on item #2 of the ATROs:

"2. Cashing, borrowing against, cancelling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children."

If you are in the middle of the divorce and all of your accounts designate your soon to be ex spouse as the sole beneficiaries, can you change the beneficiares pending a divorce? First of all, you should always consult your Estate Planning attorney to ensure that you can do so. Typically, you must wait until the divorce is finalized before you start transferring and changing beneficiaries of financial accounts.

A good article that I found here, summarizes what you should consider prior to changing beneficiaries. Here is an excerpt:

"[i]deally you should consider changing your will and all your other estate planning documents before filing for divorce. This includes updating your living will (medical directives) and financial power of attorney so that someone other than your soon-to-be ex-husband has the ability to make financial and/or medical decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated. (Do you really want him making possible life and death decisions on your behalf at this point in your relationship?) You may also want to name new beneficiaries on your life insurance policies, retirement accounts, annuities and other investments where applicable. Beneficiary changes to some accounts such as 401Ks and pension plans may require the consent of your spouse and, in all likelihood, you will not be able to change them until after your divorce has been finalized.

Also, once divorce proceedings have begun, the ability to change/move various accounts, name new beneficiaries and/or revise other documents might be prohibited. What's known as an Automatic Temporary Restraining Order (ATRO) may be in place to ensure that both parties' assets and ownership interests stay the same until they have been divided pursuant to the final divorce decree."

Contact an Orange County divorce lawyer if you have any questions or concerns about filing for divorce in Orange County or Los Angeles County.

Source: Should you disinherit your husband?

In California, upon the filing of a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, standard family law restraining orders immediately go into effect....Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders or what we call, ATRO's. What does this entail?

"Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from

1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court;

2. Cashing, borrowing against, cancelling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children;

3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and

4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in a manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party."

Whether you are filing for a Los Angeles County divorce or an Orange County divorce, please keep the above ATROs in mind. Violation of any of the above restraining orders could result in severe consequences.

For more information on filing for an Orange County divorce, contact an aggressive Orange County divorce lawyer for more information.