Estate Planning After Divorce in Montana: Will, Trust, and POA Updates

Montana's Automatic Revocation — and Its Limits

Under MCA § 72-2-814, a Montana divorce automatically revokes certain provisions in your estate plan that favor your ex-spouse. Revocable nonprobate transfers (like transfer-on-death deeds and trust provisions), fiduciary appointments (executor, personal representative), and power of attorney designations that named your former spouse are all revoked by operation of law.

That's the good news. The bad news is that this automatic revocation doesn't cover everything, and relying on it alone creates real risk.

What You Must Rewrite

Your Will

Even though Montana's statute revokes provisions favoring your ex-spouse, your existing will now has holes in it. If your ex was your primary beneficiary and executor, those provisions are revoked — but your will doesn't automatically redirect those roles to someone else. Without an updated will, your estate may pass under Montana's intestacy laws, which distribute assets to your closest surviving relatives in a statutory order that may not match your wishes.

Draft a new will that names:

• New beneficiaries for your assets
• A new executor / personal representative
• A new guardian for minor children (if applicable)

Your Revocable Living Trust

If you established a revocable trust during your marriage and your ex-spouse was a trustee, beneficiary, or successor trustee, those roles need to be replaced. Restating the trust with updated terms is cleaner than trying to amend individual provisions — a restatement replaces the trust document entirely while keeping the same trust entity.

Transfer any assets that were in a joint trust into your individual trust or into your sole name.

Financial Power of Attorney

Your ex-spouse's authority to make financial decisions on your behalf is revoked by the statute. But you still need someone in this role. A financial power of attorney authorizes a trusted person to manage your bank accounts, pay bills, file taxes, and handle business if you're incapacitated.

Execute a new durable financial power of attorney naming someone you trust — a parent, sibling, adult child, or close friend.

Healthcare Power of Attorney / Advance Directive

The same logic applies to medical decision-making. Your ex-spouse can no longer serve as your healthcare proxy under Montana law, but you need someone designated. Without a named agent, healthcare providers default to Montana's statutory surrogate hierarchy — which may not be the person you'd choose.

Execute a new healthcare power of attorney and update your advance directive (living will) with your current treatment preferences.

What the Statute Does Not Cover

Federally governed retirement accounts. Employer-sponsored 401(k) plans and other ERISA-governed plans are beyond the reach of MCA § 72-2-814. If your ex-spouse is still listed as the beneficiary on your 401(k), they receive those funds when you die — regardless of state law.

Federal life insurance. Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) are governed by federal law. State revocation statutes don't apply.

IRAs and annuities with federal custodians. While IRAs are not ERISA-governed, some custodians follow their own internal policies rather than state revocation statutes. Update the beneficiary designation directly to eliminate ambiguity.

The Practical Order of Operations

1. Review every existing document — will, trust, powers of attorney, advance directive
2. Draft new documents with updated beneficiaries and fiduciaries
3. Update beneficiary designations on every financial account (separately from the estate documents — these are different instruments)
4. Notify your attorney and financial advisor so your records are consistent
5. Store the originals securely — a fireproof safe at home or a safe deposit box. Give copies to your named executor, healthcare agent, and financial power of attorney

Don't Wait on This

Estate planning updates after divorce aren't something to handle "eventually." If something happens to you between the decree and the update, your old documents govern — and even with Montana's automatic revocation, the gaps and ambiguities create litigation risk for your family.

The Montana After-Divorce Checklist includes an estate planning worksheet that tracks each document update, flags the accounts that need manual beneficiary changes, and distinguishes between what Montana's statute covers and what it doesn't.

See more Montana guides →