Estate Planning After Divorce in Ohio: What to Update

Divorce changes who you want to inherit your assets and make decisions for you — but your old documents won't update themselves. Here's the estate-planning checklist for after an Ohio divorce.

Reviewed by Stephanie Green, Esq. · Managing Partner, Gavvl Law · Last updated June 3, 2026

Divorce is the end of one chapter — and the beginning of a new financial and legal life. In the rush of dividing property and settling parenting issues, one task is easy to overlook: updating your estate plan. Yet your will, your beneficiary designations, and the people you trusted to make decisions for you were almost certainly chosen with your spouse in mind. After a divorce, leaving those documents unchanged can produce outcomes you would never want. This guide is the post-divorce estate-planning checklist for Ohio.

Estate planning is the natural follow-up to the financial work of a divorce, especially after dividing property and deciding who gets the house. Our wills and estates service page explains how we help.

What Ohio Law Does Automatically — and What It Doesn't

Ohio law provides some automatic protection. Upon divorce or dissolution, the law generally revokes provisions in your will that favor your former spouse — treating your ex as if they had predeceased you for purposes of those gifts and any appointment as executor. That is helpful, but it is not a complete safety net. Many assets pass outside your will, and those are not fixed automatically. Relying on the automatic revocation alone leaves dangerous gaps. The only reliable solution is to review and update everything deliberately.

1. Update Your Will

Even with the automatic revocation, you should create a new will after divorce. You will likely want to name new beneficiaries, choose a new executor, and reconsider how your assets are distributed now that your family structure has changed. A fresh will removes ambiguity and ensures your wishes — not statutory defaults — control.

2. Fix Your Beneficiary Designations

This is the most commonly missed step, and one of the most important. Assets like life insurance policies, retirement accounts (401(k)s and IRAs), and payable-on-death accounts pass directly to whoever is named as beneficiary — often regardless of what your will says, and sometimes regardless of your divorce. If your ex-spouse is still the named beneficiary on your life insurance or retirement account, they may receive those proceeds even though you are divorced. Review and update every beneficiary designation:

• Life insurance policies;
• 401(k), pension, and IRA accounts;
• Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts;
• Annuities.

One caution: a divorce decree may require you to maintain certain beneficiaries — for example, naming the children, or maintaining life insurance to secure a support obligation. Coordinate your updates with the terms of your decree so you do not inadvertently violate it.

3. Replace Powers of Attorney

Most married people name their spouse as their financial power of attorney and their health-care agent. After divorce, you almost certainly do not want your ex making your financial or medical decisions if you become incapacitated. Revoke the old documents and execute new ones:

• A financial power of attorney naming someone you trust to handle money matters;
• A health-care power of attorney naming a new medical decision-maker;
• A living will (advance directive) reflecting your wishes.

4. Revisit Guardianship for Minor Children

If you have minor children, your estate plan should address who would care for them if something happened to you. While the surviving parent typically has priority, your will can express your wishes about guardianship and, importantly, about who would manage assets you leave for your children. Many divorced parents set up a trust so that a responsible trustee — not the other parent or a young adult child — manages an inheritance until the children are older. This keeps assets you intend for your children from being controlled by your former spouse.

5. Consider a Trust

A revocable living trust can be especially useful after divorce. It lets you control how and when your assets reach your children, avoids probate, names a successor trustee you choose, and keeps your affairs private. For parents who want to provide for minor children without handing assets to an ex-spouse, a trust is often the cleanest solution.

Don't Wait

The gap between "divorced" and "updated estate plan" is a period of real risk. If something happens before you update your documents, your assets and decisions could fall to the very person you just divorced — or to statutory defaults that do not reflect your wishes. Make this checklist part of finishing your divorce, not an afterthought.

Getting Help

Estate planning after divorce ties together family law and probate, and the details — especially beneficiary designations and decree obligations — are easy to get wrong. Attorneys such as Kristine Tammaro, who handle both family law and estate planning, help Ohio clients rebuild their plans for a new chapter. For Columbus-area clients, our Columbus family law page and our Franklin County page offer local guidance. The end of a marriage is the right moment to make sure your estate plan reflects the life you are building next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does divorce automatically remove my ex from my will?

Ohio law generally revokes provisions in your will that favor a former spouse upon divorce or dissolution, treating your ex as if they had predeceased you for those gifts and any role as executor. That is helpful but incomplete — many assets pass outside your will and are not affected. The only reliable fix is to create a new will and review every document deliberately.

What about my life insurance and retirement beneficiaries?

These are the most commonly missed items. Life insurance, 401(k)s, IRAs, and payable-on-death accounts pass directly to the named beneficiary — often regardless of your will. If your ex is still named, they may receive those proceeds even after divorce. Update every designation, but coordinate with your decree, which may require you to maintain certain beneficiaries (for example, the children or coverage securing support).

Should I set up a trust after divorce?

For many divorced parents, yes. A revocable living trust lets you control how and when assets reach your children, names a trustee you choose rather than your former spouse, avoids probate, and keeps your affairs private. It is an especially clean way to provide for minor children without handing assets to an ex-spouse.

Who should I name as guardian for my children after divorce?

Your will is the place to nominate a guardian who would raise your minor children if you could not. Keep in mind, though, that if the other parent is living and retains parental rights, that parent typically has the first legal claim to custody of the children. A guardian nomination in your will matters most when the other parent is unavailable, unfit, or also deceased. It is still worth naming a guardian — and a backup — so your wishes are clear, and to consider how a trust can manage assets for the children separately from who provides their daily care.

Should I update my power of attorney and healthcare directives?

Yes, and this is easy to overlook. Many people name their spouse as the agent under a financial power of attorney and as the healthcare decision-maker in a living will or healthcare power of attorney. After a divorce, you almost certainly want to revoke those documents and name someone else — a trusted family member or friend — to make financial and medical decisions if you become incapacitated. Updating these directives is just as important as updating your will and beneficiary designations.

Does divorce automatically cancel an ex-spouse from my will in Ohio?

Ohio law provides a partial safety net, but it is no substitute for actually updating your estate plan. Under R.C. 2107.33, when a testator divorces or has their marriage annulled after making a will, the law generally treats provisions in favor of the former spouse — and the former spouse's appointment as executor, trustee, or guardian — as revoked, as if the ex-spouse had died first, unless the will expressly says otherwise. A parallel rule in R.C. 5815.33 applies to many beneficiary designations, generally treating a designation in favor of a former spouse as revoked upon divorce or annulment. These statutes help, but they have real limits. They may not reach every kind of account, certain federally governed plans can follow their own rules, and the protections can be undone or complicated by how documents are written. The reliable approach is to actively revise everything after a divorce is final: execute a new will, update or revoke trusts and powers of attorney, and submit fresh beneficiary forms to each retirement plan, life insurance policy, and financial account. Relying on the default rules alone leaves too much to chance.

Disclaimer: This guide is general legal information about Ohio family law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, filing fees, and local court rules change and vary by county. For advice about your specific situation, speak with a licensed Ohio family law attorney.

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