Is it Time to Review Your Estate Plan?

It’s not the most pleasant thing you’ll do in regards to your finances, but there will be times when you have no choice but to review your estate plan.

Upon doing so, you’ll soon learn one of two things:

•    You can leave your estate plan the way it is for the time being
•    You need to alter your estate plan as to better suit your current situation and the future

You don’t have to go over board with monthly estate plan reviews, as this is overkill. However, there are times when it makes sense to take a closer look at what you have in place.

Here are five situations that typically call for this:

•    Marriage or divorce. If you tie the knot or decide to move on from your marriage, it’s essential to review your estate plan. For example, when you marry, you’ll probably want to make your spouse your primary beneficiary.
•    Child birth or adoption. Did you recently bring a child into your family? It goes without saying that this will change your estate plan in many ways. For instance, you’ll want to name a guardian for your child.
•    Addition of a valuable asset. There may come a time when you add a valuable asset to your estate, such as through an inheritance. This can alter your approach to estate planning, so don’t hesitate to review what you have in place with an idea toward making a change.
•    Death of your trustee or executor of your will. This is never an easy situation to deal with, but it’s something that will lead to an estate plan review. If your trustee or executor passes on, you’ll need to remove this person from your trust or will. Furthermore, you have to replace the person with someone else.
•    The passage of time. This is reason enough to review your estate plan. If it’s been several years since you last reviewed your estate plan, it makes sense to take a closer look to ensure that everything still checks out. You may be surprised at what you find.

When was the last time you conducted an estate plan review? Did you make changes, or were you able to keep everything the same?