What you receive in alimony and child support payments is only good if your spouse has the ability to pay. To ensure that your spouse does pay in the future, action should be taken in the divorce process. “You can request that your spouse obtain disability and life insurance policies (or modify existing policies) to ensure that these payments will continue in the event of your spouse’s disability or death.”
For example, if Jack and Jill are getting a divorce and Jack is paying child support and they did not set up any support payments, Jill will only receive the money as long as Jack is alive. If Jack gets hit by a drunk driver at a young age, Jill is forced to single handedly provide for her family for the rest of her life. Now, what if Jack and Jill agreed that Jack would buy life insurance that would be enough to cover his children’s support money until they were grown up and put it in the contract as a future support payment? In this scenario, Jill would have enough money to raise her family regardless of Jack’s life circumstances.
However, there is no rule forcing that this request be granted in the state of Minnesota. Ensuring support payments with life insurance or disability insurance is much more likely if you are able to reach a negotiated settlement with your spouse as opposed to seeking a court order. Further, receiving a court ordered life insurance requirement for your spouse is less likely to get approved in shorter marriages rather than long ones.
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