Part of having a solid estate plan is reviewing it regularly to ensure that it still reflects your wishes.
One aspect of this is to review the titling and beneficiaries listed on each of your assets to make sure they are working with and not against your will or trust. The other aspect is making sure the documents themselves still reflect your wishes at your incapacity and death. Consider how the following life events may trigger important changes to your documents.
Marriage (of you or your children)
If you have an estate plan and have gotten married, is your spouse included in your plans? Many times, married couples want to make their plans jointly and have their spouse appointed as their Health Care Agent (HCA) and Financial Power of Attorney (POA). If you have recently married, it may be time to refresh or rewrite your estate planning documents to include your spouse.
Also, if your adult child has been newly married, you may want to update your documents to ensure your family’s newest member is considered according to your wishes.
Blended Families
If a marriage includes stepchildren or otherwise blended families, this is also a reason to review your estate documents and think about any changes you would like to make. Each family is unique and default estate laws may not include your biological children and stepchildren the way you would have intended.
Particularly with stepchildren (and multiple marriages), inheritance can become a touchy subject quickly after parents pass away. This is where litigation can come up much more quickly than many people realize. A solid estate plan set up by a knowledgeable attorney can help reduce or eliminate much strife and confusion.
Separation & Divorce
If you are going through a separation and/or a divorce, get your estate planning documents updated ASAP. If you planned jointly with your spouse, they are likely listed as your HCA and POA, so make changes to those documents as soon as possible, and after the divorce is final, meet with an estate planning attorney to make sure that you have fully updated your documents based on the final division of marital assets. Additionally, review your assets and beneficiary designations to ensure that you do not have your ex-spouse listed as a beneficiary of any accounts.
Estrangement
Ideally, you will have a healthy relationship with your children and other close relatives for your entire life, but for a variety of reasons, you may not want your wealth to go to natural decedents. If you have had a breakdown of close relationships that persist, you will likely want to amend your estate planning documents.
Time
Finally, it may be that you have simply not reviewed your documents in many years. Estate law seldom changes, but every 5-10 years (even if nothing has changed), you may want to do a full review of your documents to make sure that your wishes have not substantially changed from when you initially created your estate plan. This includes reviewing the people you appoint as trustee, executor, POA, etc. As time goes on, some of the people you have named in these roles may no longer be able to serve. If this is the case, you should update your documents and appoint new people who could serve for you at your death or incapacity.
There are also many positive reasons you may want to change your estate plan. For instance, grandparents sometimes like to leave their grandchildren a gift as a reminder of their love or provide for a portion of their education. Or you may decide that you would like to leave a portion of your wealth to a nonprofit or religious institution.
Regularly review your estate planning documents (especially if a major life change has taken place in your life), update your documents when needed, and ensure that the titling and beneficiary information on all of your accounts is accurate. All of these steps are part of maintaining your estate plan. The work you do during your lifetime can dramatically impact what happens after you pass away. Help your estate plan work for you.
If you need a place to start, check out our free digital download that has suggestions of what to look for in your documents and how to prepare for a meeting with an attorney to discuss potential revisions.
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