Is your client a bigamist?

A high profile divorce and remarriage debacle involving the parents of actress Reese Witherspoon contains what may seem an obvious lesson for advisors: When doing estate planning for someone who says they’re divorced, demand to see the paperwork.

It seems John Draper Witherspoon never actually divorced his wife of 42 years before tying the knot with another. The couple had been separated for some time, but the disunion was never finalized. That makes John a bigamist, and his never-actually ex-wife is suing his new wife over the matter to gain an annulment.

At stake is family property, and the matter of a $400,000 bank loan which may have been obtained by the second “wife” under the pretense that she was the original Mrs. Witherspoon.

Read all the gory details here.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.