ARTICLES
Wills and Estates in Divorce
Illinois’ Probate Act says that once a couple divorces, any language in their wills that would have left any property to their (now former) spouse is not enforceable. If you expect to inherit money from your former spouse – even if the language is specific in the will – the inheritance won’t happen once the divorce is finalized. A new, post-divorce will must be prepared and executed.
Even when a person names a friend as a beneficiary under his will, and later married that friend, a subsequent divorce absolutely revokes any legacy or devise to the firend / former-spouse. The revocation-by-divorce provision of the Probate Act applies whether the testator executed his will before or after his marriage and prevents the former beneficiary from taking the estate she would have received had she never married the testator.1
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