In many jurisdictions, the death early in divorce proceedings immediately terminates a dissolution and is referred to as abatement. Minnesota for example, even an assigned mediation agreement, if it had not been assigned by the court, would not be considered enough for the court to continue on with the divorce proceedings.

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Retroactive divorce, is when an individual dies during the divorce proceedings and the court continues the proceedings and honors the divorce.

A bifurcated dissolution, is occurring more often now and is where the court will issue a partial decree early in the dispute to sever the marriage, and leaves other longer-term issues, such as valuation, non-marital claims, and final division of assets for further consideration. Some jurisdictions have held that if one spouse dies at this stage, the dissolution will continue.

Lastly, there is a post decree and relief appeal process, and are acceptable after the death of a spouse also.