Has Anything Changed in Your Life that Warrants a Change to Your Estate Plan?

As your life changes, your assets change, and the laws change. You may need to revisit your estate planning documents. Conducting a proper review of your estate plan will help identify the potential need to update your plan.

Life transitions: Have any babies been born, loved ones died, people gotten divorced or married? Are you nearing retirement? If so, you may need to revisit your plan.

Changes in assets: Has your net worth gone up or down? Have you invested in any new assets, such as a business, which may subject you to personal liability? If so, your estate plan needs to be updated.

Funding of assets and beneficiary designations: One of the most common mistakes people make is not properly completing the transfer of assets into a trust within their estate plan. Another common error is having beneficiary designations that are inconsistent with the distribution language in the estate plan. I recommend a review of those matters annually.