Estate Planning · Family Law · Pittsburgh

Estate Planning During Divorce in Pennsylvania: Three Documents, Three Different Rules

Pennsylvania fixed your POA when you filed. It left everything else for you to handle. Your will still names your spouse as beneficiary until the final decree is entered. Your healthcare directive still names your spouse as agent — the POA statute does not cover healthcare directives. Your IRA, your 401k, your life insurance, and your transfer-on-death accounts still name your spouse until you affirmatively change each designation. The statutes that protect you during divorce are real. They are also incomplete. They remove a name. They do not replace it with the right one. Acting before the decree — not after, not when it is convenient — is what closes the gap between what the law does automatically and what you actually want. Three documents. Three different rules. One conversation before something happens.

The Three Documents and What Happens to Each

Pennsylvania treats each estate planning document differently — one is fixed at filing, one at the final decree, and one requires you to act regardless of what any statute does. Pennsylvania law treats each estate planning document differently during divorce proceedings. A financial power of attorney naming a spouse as agent is automatically revoked when either party files a divorce complaint under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5605(c). A healthcare power of attorney — a separate document under Pennsylvania’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act — is not covered by § 5605(c) and is not automatically revoked by filing. Your spouse remains your named healthcare agent until you execute a new directive naming someone else. A will naming a spouse as beneficiary is not affected until the final divorce decree is entered, at which point the bequest becomes ineffective under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2507(2). Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities are addressed separately under 20 Pa.C.S. § 6111.2 — they may be revoked upon entry of the final decree, but affirmative action to update each designation is always the safer course.

The practical summary: one document gets fixed at filing, one gets partially fixed at the final decree, one is never fixed automatically, and one requires you to act regardless of what the statutes do. Understanding which is which before something happens is the work.

Before You File: The Most Exposed Period

The period between separation and filing is the most legally exposed. No automatic protection exists for any document during this period. Your spouse retains full POA authority, full healthcare agent authority, full will beneficiary status, and full beneficiary designation status on every account. Separation — moving out, agreeing informally to separate, even a separation agreement — does not trigger any of the statutory protections. Only filing triggers the POA revocation. Only the final decree triggers the will provision revocation.

A person who separates from their spouse and does not immediately update their documents is in the most vulnerable position in the entire divorce timeline. An accident, a medical emergency, or a sudden death during the separation period before filing leaves all estate documents unchanged and fully operative in favor of the separating spouse. The protection Pennsylvania law provides is meaningful — but it does not start until you file, and even then it is incomplete.

The Financial POA: Fixed at Filing, With One Exception

When either spouse files a divorce complaint in Pennsylvania, the other spouse’s authority under an existing financial power of attorney is automatically revoked as of the moment of filing under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5605(c). This protection is immediate and does not require any additional action by the principal. The one exception: if the POA document itself contains language stating that the designation is intended to survive a divorce filing, the revocation does not occur. Most standard POAs do not contain this language. If yours might, read it.

The revocation at filing also creates a gap: if the principal becomes incapacitated after the revocation and before a new POA is executed naming a different agent, no one has financial POA authority. For a person going through a contentious divorce who also has a medical condition or travels frequently, this gap matters. Executing a new POA immediately after filing — naming a trusted person other than the spouse — closes it.

The Healthcare Directive: Not Fixed by Filing

A healthcare power of attorney is a separate legal document from a financial POA. Pennsylvania’s § 5605(c) applies to powers of attorney under Chapter 56 of Title 20. A healthcare directive executed under Pennsylvania’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act operates under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5401 et seq. — a different chapter, a different statutory framework. Filing for divorce does not automatically revoke a healthcare directive naming a spouse as healthcare agent.

This is the gap most people going through divorce do not know about and most general legal resources do not distinguish. The financial POA is handled. The healthcare directive is not. A person who files for divorce, correctly assumes their financial POA has been revoked, and does nothing else may still have their estranged spouse making medical decisions for them in a hospital emergency. The fix is a new healthcare directive naming a different agent — a simple document, executed once, with the same formalities as the original.

The Will: Fixed at the Final Decree, Not Before

Will provisions in favor of a spouse become ineffective when the final divorce decree is entered under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2507(2). This protection does not apply during the separation period or the pending divorce period — only after the decree is entered. A person who dies during pending divorce proceedings may have their will’s spousal provisions become ineffective only if grounds for divorce have been established under 23 Pa.C.S. § 3323(g). In a no-fault divorce where grounds have not yet been established, the will provisions remain fully operative if the testator dies before the decree.

The practical consequence: a person who separates from their spouse, does not update their will, and dies before the final decree may leave their entire estate to the spouse they were divorcing — depending on how far the proceedings had advanced. The statutory protection at the decree is real but it does not cover the entire period of pending divorce. Updating the will immediately after separation — or at minimum after filing — is the conservative and correct approach.

Removing a spouse’s bequest under § 2507(2) does not make the will correct. It makes one provision ineffective. The will that remains may still name the spouse as executor, may leave assets to children with no trustee named, may have a guardian designation that no longer reflects the parents’ wishes, and may have no contingent beneficiaries for assets that would have gone to the spouse. The statutory fix solves one problem and exposes the others. A will reviewed and updated during the divorce process reflects actual intentions. A will that relies on § 2507(2) reflects whatever the statute does with what is left.

Beneficiary Designations: Never Fixed Automatically

Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, IRAs, 401ks, life insurance policies, annuities, and transfer-on-death accounts are the most commonly overlooked documents in a divorce. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 6111.2, these designations may be revoked upon entry of the final divorce decree — but the statute operates differently for different account types, and affirmative action to update each designation directly with each financial institution is always the recommended approach. A divorced person who relies on § 6111.2 without updating their designations may find that a particular account type was not covered, or that the institution requires a new designation form before treating the old one as revoked.

Updating beneficiary designations requires a separate action for each account — contacting each financial institution, completing their specific form, and confirming the update was processed. This cannot be done in bulk through an attorney. It requires the account holder to take direct action with each institution. Many people going through divorce update their will and forget their IRA. The IRA may be the larger asset. For a full overview of how beneficiary designations interact with estate planning, see our page on when to update your estate plan in Pennsylvania.

The Reconciliation Trap

Pennsylvania’s § 5605(c) revokes the spouse’s POA authority when the divorce action is filed. The statute does not address what happens if the action is later discontinued — if the parties reconcile and the divorce is dismissed. The revoked POA does not automatically reinstate when the divorce action ends. A couple who separates, files, reconciles, and dismisses the divorce action has a revoked POA that they may not know is still revoked. If the principal becomes incapacitated, the spouse who was the designated agent has no authority under the old POA. A new POA must be executed naming the spouse as agent again.

This is the situation that produces the most surprise in an estate planning consultation. A couple who reconciled two years ago and believes their documents are intact may have a POA that was never restored. The fix is a new POA — a simple document, but one that requires the couple to know the old one needs replacing. For co-agent situations and POA conflicts that arise when documents are unclear, see our page on co-agent power of attorney conflicts in Pennsylvania.

Stephen H. Lebovitz is an estate planning attorney in Pittsburgh who assists individuals going through divorce in reviewing and updating powers of attorney, wills, healthcare directives, and beneficiary designations throughout Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a full overview of estate planning documents and when to update them, visit our Estate Planning and Probate page.

Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A. · Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, near the Parkway East (Swissvale-Edgewood exit). Serving Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania.