Estate planning is not a one-time thing. You should regularly review your estate plans to ensure they reflect your current circumstances and wishes. Below are specific reasons to review estate plans.
Family Circumstances Change
For many, the estate plans reflect the family situation at any time. For example, you can use estate planning to secure your child's and spouse's financial future. However, family circumstances change, and you should review and update your estate plans to reflect the changes.
For example, you may divorce, get married, lose a child, or adopt a child after planning your estate. A former spouse may inherit your properties against your wishes if you don't update your estate plans.
Assets Values Change
Estate planning is not only about wealth or financial management; wealth management is a significant part of it. For example, your estate plans determine who receives or manages your assets after your demise.
Again, you may lose or acquire assets over the years. For example, your estate plan should consider your new status after starting or selling a profitable business. You may want to designate a new beneficiary for the new business or redistribute the existing assets to accommodate a beneficiary after selling a business.
Estate Laws Change
Estate planning laws may change after some time. You should always ensure that the existing plans work with the existing laws and respect your wishes despite legal changes. Consult your lawyer to help you review legal changes and ensure your estate plans make sense.
People Relocate
Apart from estate planning laws, other laws, such as business and property, also vary by state. You consider your current state when designing your estate plan. However, you may move several times before the executor has to execute your estate plan. Reviewing your estate plan ensures it respects and works with your current state's laws at any time.
Personal Preferences Change
Lastly, your preferences may change even if all the above don't change. Remember, estate planning should convey your wishes, so you should update them if they change. Consider a case where a charitable organization is one of your biggest beneficiaries. However, the organization evolves and loses its allure to you. You may need to update your estate planning documents to capture your new view of the organization, for example, by removing or decreasing its donation.
Contact an estate planning lawyer when deliberating estate-planning modifications. The lawyer will advise and help you make the relevant changes.
Share20 July 2023
Like many other people, I admire the important tasks lawyers take on every day. I’m amazed at how knowledgeable general attorneys are about a variety of subjects. These professionals can accomplish many complicated jobs seamlessly, such as representing a client in a civil lawsuit, assisting a business with a merger, and acting on a client’s behalf in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Besides creating detailed legal briefs, they must argue their clients’ cases in court in front of a judge, jurors, and others. On this blog, I hope you will discover how crucial general attorneys are to this country’s legal system.