Insurance that may be needed after a divorce

Some people in Georgia who are getting a divorce may need to get new medical and life insurance. Often, higher-earning spouses have the lower-earning spouse on an employer-sponsored health insurance plan. The spouse may have the option to extend the plan through COBRA, but this is both temporary and expensive. The Affordable Care Act may mean that less costly options are available even if the person has a preexisting condition.

In divorces that involve one person paying alimony to the other, life insurance may help protect that support. If the person who is paying alimony dies, the recipient could have those payments abruptly cut off. Some couples include a requirement to have life insurance in their divorce agreement.

The life insurance should be purchased before this agreement is final. This offers the opportunity to make changes if the payer is not insurable. Some recipients may also opt to purchase and pay premiums on the life insurance themselves since this allows them to make sure it does not lapse.

There may be other issues to consider around both insurance and support. For example, if there are children, the couple may need to decide who will be responsible for paying for the child’s healthcare. Other types of insurance, such as auto insurance, may need to be changed as well. The couple might want to decide whether spousal support will be modifiable if one of them has a change in income. It may also be possible to modify child support if there is a significant change in circumstances. For example, the parent who pays child support might become unemployed. The court will decide whether to grant a modification. Disability insurance might help protect against a situation in which the person paying child and spousal support can no longer work and thus cannot make the payments.