Creating an estate plan is not a one-time event. There are many benefits to having an estate plan, but they only continue to help you if the estate plan is legally valid and represents your current wishes. There are several benefits to a regular review of an estate plan. An estate planning attorney in Topeka can help you review your documents.
There are several changes in your life that should trigger an update in an estate plan. This includes life events and financial changes like:
- Marriage and remarriage.
- Divorce.
- Births, adoptions, and deaths in the family.
- Moving states.
- Significant asset gains or losses.
- Retirement.
- Changes in unemployment or income.
- Obtaining property in another state.
A regular review of your estate planning documents is also useful. Changes to laws can affect your estate plan, and the right legal support can help you address how those changes alter your documents.
The Benefits of Regularly Updating Your Estate Plan
It is helpful to review your estate plan every few years to check if there are any updates you wish to make. Life changes can alter your intentions, and changes to laws can affect your plan or even make it unenforceable. There are several benefits to updating your estate plan often, including:
1. Your Estate Plan Upholds Your Current Wishes
The primary use and benefit of regular updates to your estate plan is that you know your wishes are upheld. This includes your intentions for who manages your affairs through power of attorney, who administers your estate after death, and who benefits from your estate. All of these choices are crucial elements of a comprehensive estate plan, and what you want at one point in your life may not always apply.
Many life changes can alter who is in your life and who you want to benefit from your life’s work. By frequently updating your estate plan, you ensure that the plan provides care and benefits to those you trust.
2. It Protects Certain Documents From Validity Contests
If certain estate planning documents have not been reviewed or updated in a significant period of time, it can call into question whether they still reflect your intentions. While this does not apply to all documents, certain private institutions may contest that the document is valid.
3. There Is a Line of Past Documents in Case of a Dispute or Contest
Will or trust contests can make the administration of your estate more complicated and negate your goals with an estate plan in the first place. Not updating your estate plan can increase will contests for numerous reasons.
Firstly, well-meaning loved ones may contest the will or trust because they believe it does not meet what your wishes truly were. This is not legal grounds for a will contest, but it may still encourage family members to find legal grounds.
Additionally, a rarely updated estate plan may make will or trust contests more likely to succeed. Knowing this can encourage less-well-meaning individuals to file these contests.
When you update your estate plan, you can prevent the chances of a will contest succeeding and limit the chances of them being filed in the first place. By filing the updates, you also have several past versions of the will.
The judges can review these to determine if the current will seems in line with previous changes and intentions. If your will is overturned, then the prior version of the will can be used, rather than your estate going to intestate laws.
4. You Don’t Have to Take Action After Every Life Change
There are several life changes that should prompt an update to your will, trusts, and other estate planning documents. However, it is often impractical for people to review and change their estate plan after each event, especially when there are many in short succession. If you don’t update it, however, you may forget it entirely.
If you have an established routine of updating your estate plan, you can address several life changes at once without worrying that you will forget to do so.
FAQs
Q: Why Is It Important to Have an Estate Plan?
A: An estate plan helps you protect your assets, plan for the management of your debts, and protect your loved ones after your death. Certain estate plans can also protect your interests and estate during your life in the event of your incapacitation. If you do not make an estate plan, your family members may have to appeal to the court for certain legal powers. Your estate will instead be distributed according to state laws, which will be a long and frustrating process.
Q: What Is the Most Important Decision in Estate Planning?
A: There are many important decisions in estate planning, although one important choice is the executor or trustee you name to manage your will or trust. This individual should be someone you trust to manage complex financial responsibilities that will honor the duty they owe your beneficiaries.
If you don’t have trusts, an executor will be responsible for the entire estate. Depending on the assets in your trust, the trustee could also be responsible for the entire estate. This is a significant undertaking, and you should take care in choosing that person.
Q: What Are the Three Main Priorities You Want to Ensure With Your Estate Plan?
A: The three main priorities you may want to consider with your estate plan could be:
- Keeping your assets and estate out of probate court to benefit your loved ones emotionally and financially.
- Ensuring your assets are safeguarded to benefit your loved ones.
- Providing instructions for your own care and management of your estate in case of incapacitation.
However, it’s also important to realize that each person will have their own unique estate plan and will have unique priorities depending on their assets and beneficiaries.
Q: Why Are Wills an Important Piece of an Estate Plan?
A: Wills are an important piece of estate plans because they do several things, including:
- Listing the beneficiaries to assets in your estate.
- Providing instructions for paying your debts.
- Naming an executor to administer and manage your estate.
- Stating a preferred guardian for your minor children.
A will is a basic estate planning document, and even if you are administering your estate through trusts, a will can be used to catch any assets not yet placed in trusts. The will can then distribute assets as you wish.
Contact Stange Law Firm in Topeka
When you want to draft or review your current estate plan, legal support can help you make something enforceable and sufficiently detailed. Contact Stange Law Firm.
