When your divorce is finalized, you may breathe a sigh of relief and feel like you can relax for the first time in months or perhaps longer. However, before you begin settling into your new post-divorce surroundings, it’s important to make sure that you address any and all outstanding issues involving your former spouse, no matter how minor you may think them to be.
For example, one extremely important — yet routinely overlooked — post-divorce issue is car insurance. Here, both state laws and policy terms typically dictate that you must inform your insurer of your divorce being finalized within 30 days.
This is because your old auto insurance policies likely covered the one martial household — meaning the place where you, your former spouse and your car(s) resided. However, since your divorce, both you and your car have likely relocated to a new household, such that a new policy — incorporating new ratings factors — will need to be written.
Failure to report the divorce/changed location of cars within the 30 day timeframe can have significant consequences, including the outright cancellation of your policy. As such, any claims submitted after the unreported divorce and its associated changes could be denied outright.
Furthermore, you likely received some type of auto insurance discount for being married (anywhere from 5 to 15 percent), as well as a multi-policy discount (roughly 10 percent) and/or multi-car discounts (as much as 25 percent). However, now that you are divorced, some of these discounts will disappear, so be prepared to pay somewhat higher rates.
Accordingly, take care to notify your car insurance company of your divorce and get a quote for a new policy. Experts indicate that if you are somewhat uncertain as to your coverage needs in the post-divorce world, there are a variety of coverage calculators available online.
Stay tuned for more from our Ft. Worth family law blog …
To learn more about dissolution of marriage, property division, spousal maintenance or other divorce-related issues, contact an experienced and skilled legal professional.
This post is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice.
Source:
Fox Business, “Divorcing? Break the news to your car insurer too” April 3, 2012
