Estate Planning Awareness Week: Is Your Plan Up-to-Date?

If you follow McCreary Law Office on social media, you probably know how much we love to point out those special days created to recognize everything from baby safety to pizza and so many things on between. But this particular awareness week this week gets its own article too. See, October 17 through October 23 is Estate Planning Awareness Week. And because one of McCreary Law Office’s primary goals is to educate you on the vital importance of not only preparing an estate plan, but also keeping your plan up-to-date, let’s go over some of the details around keeping your plan current.

Outside of not creating any estate plan at all, outdated estate plans are one of the most common estate planning mistakes we encounter. An un-updated plan can lead to unintentional disinheritances, the wrong people serving as agents, or the loss of benefits for a beneficiary who is now receiving government resources.

Estate planning is an ongoing process, not a one-and-done type of deal. To ensure your plan works properly, it should continuously evolve along with your life circumstances and other changing conditions. Regardless of who you are, your life will inevitably change. Families change; assets change; laws change; and goals change.

In the absence of any major life events, we recommend reviewing your estate plan annually for a broad overview and every three-five years for a more detailed review. However, there are several common life events that require you to immediately update your plan—that is, if you want it to actually work as you intended.

When to Update Your Estate Plan

1) You Get Married.

2) You Get Divorced.

3) You Give Birth or Adopt.

4) You Have a Minor Child Reach Adulthood.

5) A Loved One Dies.

6) You Get Seriously Ill or Injured.

7) You Move to a New State.

8) Your Assets or Liabilities Change Significantly.

9) You Buy or Sell a Business

10) The Federal Estate-Tax Exemption Changes Significantly.

When you work with an estate planning firm such as McCreary Law Office, it’s not just about creating documents then never looking at them again. We want you to reach out when life changes happen so we can talk about any updates needed. We design plans that are intended to be able to grow and change as life happens. After all, estate planning is about far more than planning for your death and passing on your estate to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today.

If you need to update your plan, please contact the office. And if you don’t have a plan yet, please call the office. We can get started with a complimentary Discovery Call.