Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [157]
Life and Disability Insurance
If support is changing hands, getting life and disability insurance for the paying spouse is a good way to ensure that support would continue even if unforeseen events make that spouse unable to work and earn. Chapters 8, 11, and 15 all deal with this topic.
The agreement should state time limits for buying the insurance or, if the spouse already has it, contacting the insurance company and redoing the beneficiary designations. (Chapter 15 explains why this is necessary.)
Both Howard and Cynthia wanted to be sure that the girls would be taken care of if anything happened to either of them, so they agreed that they would maintain each other as the beneficiaries of their life insurance through work. Cynthia was also concerned about Howard's becoming unable to work as a result of his depression. While Howard thought this was unrealistic, he knew that accidents are always a possibility and agreed to purchase disability insurance.
Health Insurance
Your MSA should clearly state how each member of the family is going to be insured for medical coverage, which parent is keeping the children insured, and whether one spouse is going to remain insured on the other's group plan under COBRA (the federal law that lets a divorced spouse keep group coverage through the former spouse's employment). The COBRA time limits are particularly important here-Chapter 11 explains what they are, and your agreement should ensure that you both know what your responsibilities are to get the COBRA coverage in place. You also need to say who's going to pay for the insurance and any uninsured medical expenses.
For Howard and Cynthia, health insurance was another fairly simple issue. Although Cynthia's employer offered group insurance, Howard's coverage was better and they agreed that Cynthia would stay on that coverage until the COBRA time limit ran out. He would keep the girls on his coverage indefinitely. The agreement reflects this and contains Howard's promise to notify the plan administrator when the divorce is finalized.
Name Changes
If you're going to return to a previous name after your divorce, say so in your MSA. It's likely that the divorce order will have a place to enter the name change, too. If you don't do it at the time of your divorce, you'll have to go through another court process to get your name changed later.
Cynthia decided she wanted to return to using her birth name after the divorce, so she and Howard included a provision in the agreement to that effect. Howard asked that it be made clear that the girls would keep his last name, even if Cynthia remarried, and Cynthia agreed to including that.
Dispute Resolution
You've probably worked hard to get to the point where you're preparing a settlement agreement, and you don't want to end up in court fighting about it later. Disputes could arise about just about anything, including one parent wanting a change in the visitation schedule or support. Include a simple agreement that if you have a problem with the terms later, you'll mediate. Try to agree on a mediator in advance, or to a person who'll break a tie between you if you can't agree.
By the time they were finishing up their agreement, Cynthia and Howard were very satisfied with their out-of-court process, and they wanted to be sure they made every effort to continue to avoid court. To that end, they included a provision in their agreement promising to use mediation before going to court, if they ever had a dispute about any of the terms of their settlement agreement or parenting plan. They agreed to ask their current counselor to continue to serve as the mediator, and agreed to attend at least four sessions of mediation before