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HB0078 • 2021

Designation of spouses-revocation upon divorce or annulment.

AN ACT relating to wills and probate; specifying the revocation of probate and nonprobate transfers to a spouse upon divorce or annulment; defining terms; specifying the role and use of governing instruments for revocations; repealing existing provisions concerning revocation of transfers upon divorce or annulment; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.

Did Not Pass

The latest official action shows that this bill did not move forward in that session.

Sponsor
Representative Barlow
Last action
2021-03-08
Official status
inactive
Effective date
3/1/2021

Plain English Breakdown

The bill did not pass and therefore has no current effect.

Revocation of Spouse Designations Upon Divorce or Annulment

The bill specifies that divorce or annulment revokes certain legal provisions in wills and other documents that benefit a former spouse, unless the document explicitly states otherwise.

What This Bill Does

  • Defines key terms such as 'divorced individual', 'governing instrument', and others to clarify the bill's meaning.
  • Revokes any revocable disposition or appointment of property made by a divorced individual to their former spouse in a governing document unless explicitly stated otherwise.
  • Severs joint tenancy with right of survivorship between a divorced individual and their former spouse, turning it into shared ownership without survivor rights.
  • Provides that provisions revoked under this act are revived upon the remarriage of the divorced individuals.

Who It Names or Affects

  • People who are getting divorced or have had their marriage annulled.
  • Individuals with legal documents like wills and trusts that name a spouse as beneficiary.

Terms To Know

Divorced individual
A person who has ended their marriage through divorce or annulment.
Governing instrument
A legal document like a will, trust, or other agreement that can be changed by the person making it before divorce or annulment.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill does not apply to changes in circumstances other than divorce or annulment.
  • It is unclear how this law would affect existing legal agreements made before its effective date without specific provisions for revocation.
  • The bill did not pass and therefore has no current effect.

Bill History

  1. 2021-03-08 House

    H Did Not Consider for Introduction

  2. 2021-03-08 House

    H Did not Consider for Introduction

  3. 2021-01-26 House

    H Received for Introduction

  4. 2021-01-21 LSO

    Bill Number Assigned

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
21LSO-0201
2021
STATE OF WYOMING
21LSO-0201
Numbered
2.0

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0078

Designation of spouses-revocation upon divorce or annulment.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Barlow, MacGuire and Stith and Senator(s) Nethercott

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to wills and probate; specifying the revocation of probate and nonprobate transfers to a spouse upon divorce or annulment; defining terms; specifying the role and use of governing instruments for revocations; repealing existing provisions concerning revocation of transfers upon divorce or annulment; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1
.

W.S. 2
‑
6
‑
125 is created to read:

2
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6
‑
125.

Revocation of probate and nonprobate transfers by divorce or annulment; effect; revival; other changes excluded.

(a)

As used in this section:

(i)

"Divorce" or "annulment" means any dissolution of marriage through a divorce or annulment that results in the exclusion of the spouse as a surviving spouse for purposes of probate and nonprobate transfers upon death of the spouse. A decree of separation that does not terminate the status of husband and wife is not a divorce or annulment for purposes of this section;

(ii)

"Divorced individual" means a person who has divorced from his spouse or whose marriage has been annulled;

(iii)

"Governing instrument" means a revocable instrument executed by a divorced individual before the divorce or annulment of the marriage to the individual's former spouse;

(iv)

"Relative of the divorced individual's former spouse" or "former spouse's relative" means any person who is related to the divorced individual's former
spouse by blood, adoption or affinity and who, after the divorce or annulment, is not related to the divorced individual by blood, adoption or affinity;

(v)

"Revocable" means a disposition, appointment, provision or nomination under which the divorced individual, at the time of the divorce or annulment, was alone empowered by law or under the terms of a governing instrument to cancel the designation in favor of the divorced individual's former spouse or former spouse's relative regardless of whether the divorced individual was then empowered to designate himself in place of his former spouse or former spouse's relative and regardless of whether the divorced individual then had the capacity to exercise the power of designation.

(b)

Unless the express terms of a governing instrument provides for the disposition to a former spouse after divorce or unless a governing law, court order or contract relating to the division of the marital estate made between two (2) divorced individuals before or after the marriage, divorce or annulment state otherwise, the divorce or annulment of a marriage shall:

(i)

Revoke any revocable:

(A)

Disposition or appointment of property made by a divorced individual to the former spouse in a governing document;

(B)

Disposition or appointment created by law or in a governing document to a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse;

(C)

Provision in a governing instrument that confers a general or special power of appointment on the divorced individual's former spouse or on a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse;

(D)

Nomination in a governing instrument that nominates the divorced individual's former spouse or a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse to serve in any fiduciary or representative capacity including a personal representative, executor, trustee, conservator, agent or guardian.

(ii)

Sever the interests of the former spouse in property held by the divorced individual and the former spouse at the time of the divorce or annulment as joint tenants with the right of survivorship and property held as tenants by the entirety. Property interests of the divorced individual and former spouse severed under this paragraph shall become tenancies in common.

(c)

A severance of interests under paragraph (b)(ii) of this section shall not affect any third
‑
party interest in property acquired for value and in good faith reliance on an apparent title by survivorship in the survivor or in the name of the survivor of the former spouse of the divorced individual unless a writing declaring the severance has been noted, registered, filed or recorded prior to the third party gaining an interest in the property in records appropriate to the kind and location of the property that are relied upon in the ordinary course of transactions involving property that are evidence of ownership.

(d)

Upon a divorce or annulment, provisions of a governing instrument shall be given effect as if the former
spouse and relatives of the former spouse disclaimed all provisions revoked by this section. For nominations in a fiduciary or representative capacity revoked by this section, provisions of a governing instrument shall be given effect as if the former spouse and relatives of the former spouse died immediately before the divorce or annulment.

(e)

Provisions that are revoked solely by operation of this section shall be revived upon the divorced individual's remarriage to the former spouse.

(f)

No change of circumstances other than as described in this section revokes a will.

Section 2.

W.S. 2
‑
6
‑
118 is repealed.

Section 3.

The provisions of this act shall apply to all wills and revocable governing instruments as defined in section 1 of this act that are in effect before, on and after the effective date of this act.

Section 4
.

This act is effective July 1, 2021
.

(END)

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HB0078