Spouses in Georgia who are negotiating a divorce agreement often fail to appreciate the difficulty and importance of figuring out the right life insurance arrangement. It is not as cut and dry as it seems, and it requires some foresight. However, divorcing spouses typically focus most of their energy on issues such as property division and custody.
The divorce agreement will generally mandate that one or both spouses maintain a certain minimum amount of life insurance. Figuring out the proper amount of coverage is not always easy. It is difficult to anticipate exactly how much it will cost to raise children in the future as well as how much college will cost. These same considerations are also necessary if one spouse is paying alimony to the other. Yet some divorcing spouses simply seem to pick a random number and put it in the agreement.
Another issue is that the cost of life insurance is only constant over the life of one policy. When there is a renewal, the cost of the premium can escalate as the insured gets older. This can make carrying the required amount of life insurance a burden for the person required to pay. They may not even be able to get insurance at all if their health has changed in a way that would cause them to be rejected for a policy.
A family law attorney may advise their clients on the best possible way to handle life insurance in a divorce agreement. The attorney might bring up various contingencies for their client’s consideration so that they are not left unprepared in the future in the event that the worst happens. Clients generally tend to focus their attention elsewhere during a divorce, and an attorney may help them focus on details that they may be overlooking.