Former NBA player Lamar Odom may have made a mistake with his estate planning when he apparently didn’t consider divorce in his planning.
Lamar Odom, husband of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, was found recently near death in a Nevada brothel and may have made a mistake in his estate planning prior to the incident as detailed in a recent article, titled “Wife of Former NBA Star Lamar Odom Retains Power Over Health Care Decisions,” on Law Firm News Wire.
The problem is that Odom and Kardashian have filed for divorce. However, the divorce has not been finalized.
What does that mean?
That means that Kardashian still has the authority to make Odom’s health care and financial decisions. If he passes away before the divorce is finalized, Kardashian will receive the bulk of Odom’s estate as well.
Odom should have updated his estate plan upon filing for divorce if he didn’t want her to have that authority.
He should have had a general durable power of attorney, health care power of attorney and will drawn up. With the powers of attorney he could have named another person to be responsible to make his health and financial decisions in the event he became incapacitated, which is what happened. That would have prevented the woman he is currently divorcing from making those decisions for him.
One should always take a life changing event such as divorce into consideration for a potential update of their estate plan. In the case of divorce that life changing event most likely occurs when the papers are filed.
Reference: Law Firm News Wire (Dec. 14, 2015) “Wife of Former NBA Star Lamar Odom Retains Power Over Health Care Decisions”
