When you are busy living your life, you’re probably not putting much thought into your estate plan. Ensuring the proper disposition of your money and property should be a priority. Even if there is no meaningful change in your life, it’s smart to review your estate plan document to ensure it still addresses all your concerns and reflects your wishes.
Five-year Follow-up
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to give your estate plan a thorough review every five years. Your legal and financial professionals can help you check your plan and assess whether it still meets all your goals. Among other matters, you may should review the following:
- The values of your personal and business assets. If values have changed significantly, you may need to adjust your estate plan accordingly.
- Accounts are titled jointly.
- Beneficiary designations to make sure they are still appropriate.
- Bequests you’ve made for charitable contributions to see if they need to be increased or decreased depending upon your current situation.
Annual Assessments
You and your financial professional also may want to give your estate plan a once-over each year. You’ll want to make sure that your plan is still tax effective if there have been any changes to the federal and/or your state’s tax law. Current economic and investment market conditions also could have an impact on your estate planning.
Each and Every Event
Big changes in your life could mean having to make a big change to your estate plan. So, if you’ve recently married or divorced, you should review your plan. The marriage or divorce of a child or grandchild also may prompt a review. The birth or death of a family member could have an impact on your will and your current beneficiary designations. And, if you retire or receive a sizable inheritance, you probably should review your plan.
