Estate Planning After Divorce in Maryland: Wills, Trusts, POA, and Advance Directives

Most people assume their divorce decree automatically removes their ex-spouse from everything. Maryland law does automatically revoke some estate planning documents — but it leaves others completely untouched, creating gaps that can hand your ex-spouse control over your medical decisions or your assets after death.

Here's what changes automatically and what you must update manually.

What Maryland Automatically Revokes

Your will. Under Estates & Trusts § 4-105(b)(4), your divorce automatically revokes any provisions in your will that benefit your ex-spouse. They're treated as if they predeceased you. This includes bequests of property, appointment as personal representative (executor), and any fiduciary role.

But the rest of your will remains intact. If your ex was your sole beneficiary and you have no alternate named, your estate passes under Maryland's intestacy rules — which may not match your wishes at all.

Your revocable living trust. Under Estates & Trusts § 14.5-604, divorce revokes your ex-spouse's beneficial interest in your revocable trust — but only for trusts executed on or after October 1, 2016. If your trust predates that, this protection may not apply, and your ex could still be entitled to distributions.

Your financial power of attorney. Under Estates & Trusts § 17-112, your ex-spouse's authority under a financial POA is automatically terminated as of the date the divorce complaint was filed or the separation agreement was signed — not the date of the final decree. This is one of the earliest automatic protections that kicks in.

The catch: if your ex was your only named agent, you now have no one authorized to manage your finances if you become incapacitated. This gap can exist for months or years during a lengthy divorce process.

What Maryland Does NOT Revoke

Your Advance Healthcare Directive. This is the dangerous one. Under Health-General § 5-604, your Advance Healthcare Directive remains fully valid after divorce. Your ex-spouse retains complete medical decision-making authority — including end-of-life decisions — until you manually execute a new directive and revoke the old one.

Maryland does disqualify your ex from acting as a default surrogate healthcare decision-maker (the statutory hierarchy under Health-General § 5-605 skips the ex-spouse if a divorce action has been filed). But if you signed an explicit Advance Directive naming them, that document overrides the default hierarchy.

Non-probate beneficiary designations. Life insurance policies, 401(k) accounts, IRAs, and other accounts with named beneficiaries are completely unaffected by the divorce. They pass directly to whoever is listed on file, regardless of your will, your trust, or your divorce decree.

The Documents You Need to Update or Replace

1. Draft a New Will

Even though Maryland revokes the ex-spouse provisions, your will likely needs a complete rewrite. You need to:

• Name new beneficiaries for your assets
• Appoint a new personal representative (executor)
• Name a new guardian for minor children (if applicable)
• Update any specific bequests that assumed a married household

2. Amend or Restate Your Trust

If you have a revocable living trust, execute a formal trust amendment or restatement to:

• Remove your ex-spouse as a beneficiary
• Appoint a new successor trustee
• Redefine asset distribution

Don't rely solely on the automatic revocation — an explicit amendment prevents any ambiguity.

3. Execute a New Financial Power of Attorney

Your old POA naming your ex is already void. Draft a new durable POA appointing a trusted person — an adult child, parent, sibling, or close friend — as your agent. Without this, no one can manage your bank accounts, pay bills, or handle financial transactions on your behalf if you're incapacitated.

4. Execute a New Advance Healthcare Directive

This is the most urgent document to replace. Draft a new directive that:

• Names a new healthcare agent
• States your preferences for medical treatment and end-of-life care
• Explicitly revokes all prior directives

Provide copies to your primary care physician, any specialists, and the hospital where you'd most likely be treated. Maryland doesn't have a central registry — your medical providers need physical copies on file.

When to Act

The ideal timeline:

• During separation: Review all estate documents and identify what needs changing. Your financial POA is already terminated, so execute a new one immediately.
• Within 30 days of the decree: Execute a new Advance Healthcare Directive, draft a new will, and begin updating beneficiary designations.
• Within 60 days: Complete the trust amendment and verify all beneficiary designations are updated.

The Maryland After-Divorce Checklist includes a beneficiary audit worksheet that lists every document type — will, trust, POA, directive, and all beneficiary designations — with the specific action required and the legal authority for each automatic revocation, so you can verify nothing is left naming your ex-spouse.

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