Estate Planning: Not A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity

In my practice, it’s not unusual for me to meet with clients whose wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents are 5, 10, or even 20 years old.  For many of these clients, their lives have changed dramatically in the years (or even decades) since their estate plans were created.  They may have had children, married, divorced, acquired property, changed jobs, or even entered retirement.  As a result, their intentions and, more importantly, their needs have changed dramatically as well.  In most cases, their existing estate plan documents no longer accomplish or even address their current estate planning wishes and goals.

Without a crystal ball to predict the twists and turns of your life’s future path, it’s virtually impossible that one set of estate plan documents will address the needs that will change and evolve throughout your life.  The estate plan documents you create as a married parent of young children will likely be different from the documents you will prepare as a retiree whose children are grown and self-sufficient.  Experiencing death, divorce, or other major life changes will also radically alter your goals in planning for yourself and your loved ones. 

With all this in mind, you may be wondering how you can ensure that your estate plan will continue to address and accomplish goals that will likely change throughout the course of your lifetime.  Addressing these changes in estate planning should not require you to start from scratch each time you experience a shift in your life goals or circumstances.  Instead, you should view your estate plan as a set of “living” documents that should evolve over time.  For example, a revocable or “living” trust is intended to exist throughout the grantor’s lifetime, from the date that it is created until the grantor’s death and beyond.  After it is initially created, the trust can be amended to address virtually any change you might wish to implement – from a simple change of trustee, all the way to a complex re-working of the substantive trust distribution terms.  Similarly, a will can be updated and amended using a document known as a codicil.

So, how often should you revisit your estate plan documents once they have been created?  As a general rule and at a minimum, you and/or your attorney should review your existing estate plan at least every 3-5 years.  This type of review should be intended to take into account any changes in the law that may affect your planning, and any changes you may wish to make to the fiduciaries you have named in the important roles of guardian, trustee, executor, and agent(s) under your powers of attorney for health care and property.  In addition to these regular reviews, you should review and update your estate plan documents any time you experience a significant life change like the sale and/or purchase of new real estate, the birth of a child,  a marriage or divorce, receipt of an inheritance, or any other similar changes.

If it has been some time since your estate plan documents have been reviewed by an attorney, or if you have recently experienced a significant life change, contact our office and we will be happy to assist you.

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Disclaimer: This article provides legal information of a general nature and is not intended as legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship with any person or group of persons. Should you wish to obtain legal advice concerning your particular situation, contact an attorney.