What Milestones Mean It’s a Good Time to Revisit Your Estate Plan?
You’ve probably heard that once you’ve created your estate plan, you shouldn’t just lock it in a safe and forget about it — you need to revisit it every once in a while. But just how often do you need to review your plan?
Constantly going over your estate plan may feel pointless, but if you don’t revise it often enough, it may create major headaches for you and your loved ones down the line.
Many estate planning attorneys suggest revisiting your estate plan after major milestones or life events. Here are a few key events that might mean it’s time to take another look at your estate plan.
Buying or Selling a Home
Buying or selling a home is a critical milestone. Once you do so, you should update your existing will to reflect your gain or loss of an asset. If you’ve just bought a home or another piece of property, you might consider placing it in a trust to make future asset distribution simpler.
Being Diagnosed With a Serious Illness or Disability
Many estate planning checklists include creating a living will, or advance directive, and nominating someone to make healthcare decisions for you if you’re unable to. If you’ve just learned you have a serious illness, you may want to update these documents accordingly.
For example, depending on your illness, you may know what types of medical interventions are commonly used. When updating your advance directive, you can specifically address each intervention and state whether you agree to it or not.
Having a Child
If you’ve recently welcomed a new child into your family, you’re already facing a never-ending list of things to do. Updating your estate plan might not be at the forefront of your mind, but you should consider making changes like these as soon as you can:
- Creating a trust to distribute assets to your child after your death
- Opening a 529 plan for your child’s future educational expenses
- Updating life insurance policies to add your child as a beneficiary
- Updating your will to add your child
If you don’t already have a will or a life insurance policy, your estate planning attorney can help you add these essential elements to your plan.
Getting Married or Divorced
Few life changes can have a bigger impact on an estate plan than getting married or divorced. Since most married people have their spouse as a beneficiary of their life insurance policies, wills, and retirement accounts, each of these will likely need to be updated.
Many people also give their spouse the power to make healthcare decisions for them if they are unable to. If this applies to your situation, you may need to update your durable power of attorney or healthcare power of attorney.
Need Help With Estate Planning?
Whether you’ve just realized you’re overdue to revise your estate plan or you need to create one for the first time, turn to the team at Mason Law and Planning Group. We help Colorado residents of all ages and backgrounds craft estate plans that bring their families security and peace of mind. Contact us to get started with a consultation today!
