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Life Insurance, Alimony and Child Support

You may request in your petition for dissolution of marriage that payor spouse provides life insurance to cover alimony and/or Orlando child support. You want to request in your petition for dissolution of marriage, if you are requesting alimony or child support, that your spouse provide life insurance to cover alimony and/or child support and that the former spouse may contact directly the life insurance company to check each year that there is continuing coverage of the life insurance. You need to request that both parties are required to obtain the insurance company form to redesignate the former spouse as the beneficiary after the final judgment.

The above language is necessary because of F. S. 732.703 (2). F. S. 732.703(2) states: A designation made by or on behalf of the decedent providing for the payment or transfer at death of an interest in an asset to or for the benefit of the decedent’s former spouse is void as of the time the decedent’s marriage was judicially dissolved or declared invalid by the court order prior to the decedent’s death, if the designation was made prior to the dissolution or court order. The decedent’s interest in the asset shall pass as if decedent’s former spouse predeceased the decedent. This is why the language above is crucial.

In your petition for dissolution of marriage, or in your petition for paternity, timesharing and Orlando child support, you may also request that the payor parent provide life insurance to cover the child support. You want to request that the payor parent obtains and maintains a life insurance policy naming the payee parent as the irrevocable beneficiary for the child or children to cover the child support obligation for the children.

You may be able to get the payor spouse, or payor parent to agree to this in a settlement agreement or at mediation. However, if you have requested this, and you must go to trial; the court will analyze the following information to determine if he/she should order the payor spouse to carry life insurance:

1. The availability of the proposed insurance.
2. The costs of the proposed insurance.
3. Payor’s ability to afford the insurance.
4. The amount of the life insurance ordered must be related to the support obligation.

If you are having problems with the Orlando child support or any other of the above mentioned issues, you may want to contact an attorney to help you on that matter. You may contact Ann Marie Gilden, Esquire at Ann Marie Giordano Gilden, P. A. for an initial consultation at 407-732-7620.

This is article is for informational purposes only and does not form an attorney client privilege.