Updating Your Estate Plan

After deciding to implement an estate plan, many people procrastinate for months (even years) before they finally reach out to an attorney to have one prepared for them. Add that to the fact that, despite my best efforts to make the process as painless as possible, it can be an unpleasant conversation for most people. After all, who wants to contemplate their own death?

After finally completing their estate plan, clients often feel relieved since they’ve now checked that task off of their to-do list and have a definite plan. Unfortunately, though, most estate plans do not go through periodic reviews, which jeopardizes the effectiveness of the entire plan. Documents tend to be forgotten about. Estate plan, binders either get placed in a home safe or safe deposit box (best practice), or they are stored in a random drawer or on shelf somewhere in the home where they sit and collect dust.

But while life continues evolving – years go by, kids grow older, assets are accumulated, and people come in and out of your life – estate plans remain the same unless they are reviewed and updated according to your life as it is presently (not how it was when the plan was originally executed).