In many states, divorce automatically revokes any part of your will that named your former spouse. It usually does not automatically revoke your trust, your executor nomination for other purposes, or the guardian you named for your kids. Until you write a new will and review your trust directly, your estate plan may not reflect what you actually want.
Your will and any trust you set up during your marriage were written for a life that no longer exists. They may still name your former spouse as executor, trustee, or the person who inherits everything. Some of that gets fixed automatically the moment your divorce is final. Some of it doesn't, and the gap is easy to miss because nothing forces you to notice it.
This guide walks through what typically happens on its own, what almost always needs your direct action, and a realistic timeline for getting it done in the first 90 days after your divorce.
- What divorce commonly changes in a will automatically — and the limits of that protection
- Why a revocable trust often needs separate attention from your will
- Naming a new executor and, if you have a trust, a new trustee
- What happens to the guardian nomination for your children
- A 90-day timeline for updating your estate plan
- When the update is simple enough to do yourself, and when to call an attorney
What Divorce Changes Automatically in Your Will
A majority of states have adopted some version of a rule from the Uniform Probate Code that revokes, on divorce, any gift or appointment your will made to your former spouse — treating them as if they had died before you. This can also revoke a nomination naming your ex as executor, and in many states it extends to relatives of your ex you may have named as backups.
That sounds like a safety net, and to a point it is one. But it has real limits worth understanding before you assume you're covered.
There's also state-by-state variation in exactly what gets revoked and how. Not every state has adopted this rule the same way, and a handful haven't adopted it at all. Relying on "my state probably handles this" is a real risk — the safer approach is to treat automatic revocation as a backstop, not a plan.
What Usually Doesn't Change on Its Own
| Document | What divorce commonly does | What you still need to do |
|---|---|---|
| Will | Many states revoke gifts and appointments made to a former spouse | Write a new will — don't rely on the gap left behind |
| Guardian nomination for minor children | Not automatically changed by most states' revocation statutes | Confirm or update the named guardian and alternate in a new will |
| Revocable living trust | Varies widely — some states extend the will rule to trusts, others don't | Have the trust reviewed and amended or restated by an attorney |
| Joint trust created with your ex | Generally not resolved by divorce alone | Requires attorney involvement to divide or terminate |
| Successor trustee nomination | Varies by state and trust language | Name a new successor trustee directly in the amended trust |
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death bank accounts follow their own beneficiary forms, not your will or trust. That topic gets its own full walkthrough in Updating Beneficiaries After Divorce — it's a separate task from the one covered here, and just as easy to overlook.
Your Trust Needs Its Own Look
If you and your former spouse created a revocable living trust together during the marriage, divorce raises questions a will never has to answer. Who serves as trustee now? Does the trust split into two, or does one of you keep it and amend it? What happens to property that was retitled into the trust's name?
Some states apply the same automatic revocation logic to individual revocable trusts that they apply to wills, removing a former spouse as beneficiary or trustee by operation of law. Other states limit that automatic protection to wills only, which means a trust naming your ex could remain fully intact until you take action. A joint trust — one you and your spouse created and funded together — is its own category, since both of you may hold rights under the same document that a divorce decree alone doesn't sort out.
Reviewing your trust after divorce
- Pull your trust document and identify every place your former spouse is named — as beneficiary, trustee, or successor trustee
- Bring the trust to an estate planning attorney rather than assuming your state's automatic rule covers it
- If the trust was joint, work through whether it should be split, terminated, or restated as an individual trust
- Retitle any property the trust holds if ownership needs to change as part of the divorce settlement
- Name a new successor trustee if your former spouse was serving in that role
Naming a New Executor and Guardian
An executor is the person who carries out your will after you die — filing it with the probate court, paying debts, and distributing property. If you named your former spouse, most state revocation rules remove that appointment automatically. But the role doesn't fill itself back in. A new will needs to name someone in their place.
Common choices include an adult sibling, parent, adult child, or close friend who is organized and willing to take it on. For larger or more complicated estates, some people choose a professional fiduciary or an attorney instead. It can help to name a backup executor too, in case your first choice is unable or unwilling to serve when the time comes.
If you have minor children, the guardian nomination in your will deserves separate attention. Courts generally give weight to the surviving parent's documented wishes, but they want to see those wishes in writing. Name a primary guardian and an alternate, and have a direct conversation with whoever you're naming so they know what they're agreeing to.
Priya's divorce was finalized in early 2026. Her home state's revocation statute automatically removed her ex-husband as a beneficiary and executor under her existing will, so on paper her will no longer favored him. But the will still hadn't named anyone new — no updated executor, no confirmed guardian for her two kids, and no plan for who should inherit instead.
She also had a revocable trust the couple had set up together five years earlier. Her state's automatic revocation rule for wills didn't extend to that trust, and her ex remained listed as successor trustee until Priya had the trust reviewed and amended by an attorney three months later.
The lesson: automatic revocation removed her ex from one document but left the other untouched, and neither document reflected what Priya actually wanted until she updated them directly.
A 90-Day Timeline
Estate planning is easy to postpone because nothing forces the issue day to day. Working from a timeline helps.
| Timeframe | Task |
|---|---|
| First 2 weeks | Pull your current will and trust; identify every place your former spouse is named |
| Weeks 2–4 | Decide on a new executor, trustee (if applicable), and guardian for minor children |
| Weeks 4–8 | Meet with an estate planning attorney to draft a new will and amend or restate any trust |
| Weeks 8–12 | Sign the new documents, then update related beneficiary forms — see the beneficiaries guide |
| Ongoing | Revisit your estate plan after any major life change — remarriage, new children, a move to a new state |
When to Bring in an Attorney
A straightforward will update — new executor, new guardian, new beneficiaries — is something many estate planning attorneys can turn around quickly and affordably, often for a few hundred dollars. A trust is a different level of complexity, especially a joint trust or one that holds real estate or a business interest. That's worth attorney involvement even if the will portion feels simple enough to handle with a template.
Your state bar association's lawyer referral service is a reliable starting point, and many offer free or low-cost initial consultations. If cost is a barrier, local legal aid organizations often provide estate planning help for income-qualifying individuals. For the fuller picture of every account and document that needs attention after divorce — not just the will and trust — see Estate Planning After Divorce: What to Update.
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