The surviving operation of law and without reference to a will -- pass to the survivor; yet marital property in the name of the deceased does not.

This very often excludes the surviving spouse are greater under the law of divorce than under the law of decedents’ estates.

Abatement, which is the name for the general rule terminating divorce actions when one of the spouses dies during the action, does not create a legal black hole when the parties divorce in a bifurcated action. In this, the parties first divorce and then the court jurisdiction.

Many courts have ruled that poor health and impending death are valid reasons to bifurcate a divorce action.

A surviving estate because the deceased partner has no financial needs.

Some courts have held that when the judgment," the rule of abatement does not apply.

Abatement does not apply when one claim to the marital estate.

In an effort to prevent the difficulties associated with abatement, some spouses draft wills or codicils naming each other as beneficiaries to one-half of the marital estate, "or of as much of the marital property as the parties can agree that the other spouse would receive after the divorce."

Another strategy is to obtain a divorce nunc pro tunc -- "now for then," a legal slight of hand that is in effect a retroactive divorce. Not all jurisdictions permit this.

Sometimes the remedies to the problems created by the constructive trust had been established in the marriage.

Death comes to everyone, often unannounced, but when the spouse seems reasonably possible, it is wise to take steps to avoid the black hole.

Some legal problems require good legal talent. A black hole is one of them.

See also Black Hole; Estate Planning.