Updating your estate plan is a very important part of the process. You need to conduct reviews and determine when updates are necessary. There’s always a chance that you could review the plan and find that it still works—but you at least need to consider it periodically.
One way to do this is to pick a frequency that works based on your lifestyle, your family and other relevant factors. It could be as simple as looking at your estate plan every three years or doing an annual review and making updates when necessary. Having a set schedule means you won’t run into a scenario where you pass away unexpectedly and your family discovers the estate plan is 10 or 15 years out of date.
Key life events
Another thing to remember is that an estate plan may need to be updated after certain events in your life, no matter how long it’s been since the last update. Examples include:
- The birth of a child or grandchild
- Getting married or divorced
- Being diagnosed with a serious illness
- Suffering a major injury
- Selling major assets
- Acquiring significant assets, such as receiving an inheritance
- Deciding to disinherit a beneficiary
- Having one of your beneficiaries pass away
- Noticing significant changes to estate tax laws or other legal requirements
These are just a handful of examples, but you basically want to pay attention to life events that may change how your estate plan works or what you want it to accomplish. When these things happen, it can be important to conduct a review—so make sure you know what legal steps to take to make the proper updates.