It’s Spring. Most of us are confined to our homes. Now is a great time for spring cleaning!!! That includes your estate plan!
Dust off your estate plan to ensure that it will still achieve your goals, as well as to avoid unintended consequences that may arise because of divorces, deaths, births, or other changes that have occurred since the last time your plan was reviewed. Here are a few of the items you should review.
Have your children reached adulthood?
The guardian you named no longer needs to be included in your plan. In addition, you may want to adjust your estate plan to take their personalities and needs as adults into account. For example, if one of your children tends to be irresponsible with money or has developed an addiction, a trust permitting distributions only for the child’s health, education, support, or welfare may be a better option. Also, if your children now have a family of their own, you may want to revise your estate plan to include your grandchildren.
Do you need to name different fiduciaries?
If your fiduciary (executor, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney) has died, moved, is otherwise no longer able or willing to serve in that role, or changed his or her name, you may need to revise your estate plan to designate a new fiduciary or reflect the name change. Have you named alternates who can serve if the fiduciary is not available when needed?
Has your spouse passed away?
It is especially important to review and revise your estate plan if your spouse has died. The following are only a few of the changes you may need to incorporate into your estate plan.
- It is likely that you named your spouse as beneficiary, so it is crucial for you to update the beneficiaries named in your estate plan and other financial documents.
- If your spouse was named as the successor trustee of your trust, your agent under a power of attorney, or your health care proxy, you need to name another trusted person to fill those roles.
- If you and your spouse owned real estate as joint tenants, you must file your spouse’s death certificate in the county where the real estate is located, so your spouse’s name is removed from the property. If full ownership of the property was not in joint tenancy, or if your spouse owned property in just his or her name, probate may be necessary.
How will recent changes in the law regarding retirement accounts affect your beneficiaries?
A new law called the SECURE Act made significant changes that could have an important impact on many non-spouse beneficiaries, and you should discuss the potential consequences on your estate plan with your estate planning attorney, who can provide you with alternative trust structures that can provide longer term protection for your beneficiaries.
Don’t Sweep an Outdated Estate Plan Under the Rug!
If you don’t clean up your estate plan, the result could be a big mess for your family and loved ones to straighten up when you die.
