Update Your Estate Plan After Divorce in Iowa

Iowa has some of the stronger automatic estate-plan protections in the country. When your divorce is finalized, several statutes kick in to revoke provisions naming your ex-spouse. But these protections have gaps, and relying on them without taking manual action creates real risks.

What Iowa Law Automatically Revokes

Wills (Iowa Code § 633.271)

Your divorce automatically revokes every provision in your existing will that benefits your former spouse or any relative of your former spouse. The law treats your ex as if they predeceased you. This includes bequests, but also appointments — if your ex was named executor, trustee, or guardian, those designations are void too.

Revocable Trusts (Iowa Code § 633A.3107)

Same principle: all provisions in a revocable trust that benefit your former spouse or their relatives are automatically revoked upon the signing of the decree.

Life Insurance and Financial Accounts

Iowa Code § 598.20A automatically voids beneficiary designations naming your ex-spouse on personal life insurance policies. Iowa Code § 598.20B does the same for IRAs, stock option plans, payable-on-death accounts, and transfer-on-death accounts.

What Iowa Law Does NOT Revoke

Powers of Attorney

No Iowa statute automatically revokes a power of attorney naming your ex-spouse. If you have a Medical Power of Attorney, Financial Power of Attorney, or Living Will that designates your ex as your agent or healthcare proxy, those documents remain valid after divorce.

The practical risk: if you're hospitalized with a ten-year-old Medical Power of Attorney on file naming your ex, the hospital may rely on that document to let your ex make medical decisions for you during an emergency. This is exactly what most people don't want — and exactly what happens when these documents aren't updated.

Action required: Formally revoke all prior powers of attorney and healthcare directives. Execute new ones naming your chosen agents. Distribute copies to your primary care physician, local hospitals, and any financial institutions that had the old documents on file.

ERISA-Governed Workplace Plans

The automatic revocation statutes for life insurance and retirement accounts are completely overridden by federal ERISA preemption for employer-sponsored plans. Your workplace 401(k), group life insurance, and pension beneficiary designations must be manually updated through HR — Iowa law cannot protect you here.

The Replacement Plan Itself

Here's the gap that catches most people: Iowa law revokes the provisions benefiting your ex, but it doesn't draft a replacement plan. If your entire estate plan was built around your marriage — ex-spouse as sole beneficiary, ex-spouse's parent as alternate executor, ex-spouse as guardian for minor children — every one of those designations is now void.

Without new documents, your estate is governed by Iowa's intestacy rules, which distribute assets based on surviving relatives in a statutory order that may not match your wishes at all. If you have minor children, the court appoints a guardian without your input.

What to Execute After Divorce

1. New will: Name new beneficiaries, a new executor, and (if you have minor children) a guardian. Have it witnessed and notarized per Iowa requirements.

2. New revocable trust (if you had one): Update the trustee, successor trustee, and all beneficiary provisions.

3. New Medical Power of Attorney: Name someone you trust to make healthcare decisions if you're incapacitated.

4. New Financial Power of Attorney: Name someone to handle financial matters if you can't.

5. New Living Will / Advance Directive: State your end-of-life care preferences with your current wishes.

6. Update beneficiary forms: Manually submit new designations for all employer-sponsored plans (ERISA), personal life insurance, IRAs, and bank/brokerage accounts.

The Iowa After-Divorce Checklist includes an estate planning audit worksheet that walks through every document type, tracks which ones you've updated, and flags the items Iowa's automatic protections don't cover.

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