Updating Wills and Powers of Attorney After Divorce in Louisiana

Louisiana automatically revokes your ex-spouse's inheritance rights under your will when you divorce. But that same automatic protection does not extend to powers of attorney — your ex can still make financial and medical decisions on your behalf until you explicitly revoke those documents. This gap catches people who assume the divorce wiped everything clean.

What the Divorce Automatically Revokes

Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 1608, a divorce automatically revokes:

• Any legacy (bequest) to your ex-spouse in your existing will
• Any appointment of your ex-spouse as executor of your estate

This happens by operation of law — you do not need to file anything. If you die after your divorce without updating your will, your ex-spouse is simply treated as if they predeceased you, and the remaining terms of the will control.

However, this automatic revocation only applies to wills governed by Louisiana law. If you have a will executed in another state or a trust document, different rules may apply.

What the Divorce Does Not Revoke

Financial mandates (powers of attorney). Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 3024, a financial mandate remains valid after divorce unless you formally revoke it. If your ex-spouse holds your power of attorney, they can still access your bank accounts, sign contracts on your behalf, and manage your property until you take action.

Medical mandates (healthcare powers of attorney and living wills). Same rule. Your ex-spouse can still make medical decisions for you — including end-of-life decisions — if they are named in your healthcare directive and you have not revoked it.

Beneficiary designations. These are contract-based, not will-based, and Article 1608 does not touch them. See the separate rules for updating beneficiaries after divorce.

How to Revoke a Power of Attorney in Louisiana

To formally revoke a mandate naming your ex-spouse as agent:

1. Execute an Act of Revocation — a written document that explicitly revokes the mandate. For maximum enforceability, execute it as an authentic act: signed before a notary public and two witnesses.
2. Record it if the original mandate was recorded. If the mandate authorized your ex-spouse to manage real estate, it was (or should have been) recorded in the conveyance records. The revocation must be recorded in the same Clerk of Court to be effective against third parties.
3. Deliver written notice to your ex-spouse and to every financial, medical, and legal institution where the mandate was previously presented.

Under La. R.S. 6:311.1, a bank is legally protected if it continues to honor a mandate until it receives physical written notice of the revocation and has had reasonable time to act on it. This means you need to be proactive — simply filing the revocation at the courthouse is not enough if your bank has not been notified.

Drafting a New Will

Even though Article 1608 removes your ex-spouse from the picture, a post-divorce will should be drafted for several reasons:

• Your old will may have contingent provisions that no longer make sense (alternate beneficiaries, guardian appointments)
• If your old will left everything to your ex-spouse with no alternate, the automatic revocation means the estate passes under Louisiana's intestacy rules — which may not match your wishes
• A new will lets you appoint a new executor, update guardian designations for minor children, and structure your estate around your current financial reality

Louisiana recognizes two valid will forms:

• Notarial testament — dictated or presented to a notary and signed by the testator before two witnesses and the notary. This is the most common and most reliable form.
• Olographic testament — entirely handwritten, dated, and signed by the testator. No witnesses or notary required, but more vulnerable to challenge.

For estate plans of any complexity, a notarial testament with a qualified estate planning attorney is worth the cost.

Timeline

Revoke existing powers of attorney within the first two weeks after your divorce is final. Draft a new will within the first 30 to 60 days. These are not steps you can safely postpone — the gap between your divorce and your updated estate plan is a window of vulnerability.

The Louisiana After-Divorce Checklist includes the estate planning steps alongside every other post-divorce administrative task, organized by deadline.

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