Your car needs regular maintenance and tune-ups, and so does your estate plan! Many people assume that once you make your will or trust, your job is done and you’re good to go! A car comes with an Owner’s Manual, and you know that depending on your make and model, you have to schedule routine maintenance every 3000 miles, every year or at other milestones. But how do you know when your estate plan needs a tune up?
1. Review Account Beneficiaries Every 3-5 Years
Review your account beneficiaries every 3-5 years, including life insurance policies, stocks and bonds, savings accounts and other financial accounts
2. Major Life Events
Marriage, death, divorce and other major life changes are a good time to review your beneficiaries and estate plan.
3. Laws Change
When tax laws, gifting and other laws that impact estate planning and inheritance laws change, you should review your estate plan.
4. When You Start a New Job or Business
If you change careers or open or close a business, you should review your estate plan and make sure that your beneficiaries are up to date.
5. Relocate
If you relocate to a new state or country, you should review your estate plan with a professional familiar with the laws and regulations in your new home to make sure your wishes will be followed in your current legal documents.
6. Retire
Things change in unexpected ways when you retire. What you planned for your retirement may not in fact be the case when you do retire.
7. Change in Financial Status
If your financial status changed significantly – your house increased in value, you sold a business, your stock portfolio increased, your cryptocurrency increased by ten times – you may have different plans for how you’d want that money distributed than when they were worth far less.
8. Receive an Inheritance
If you receive an inheritance, expected or unexpected, your financial picture has changed, and this may change your estate plan.
9. Someone You Care For Becomes Disabled
If you care for someone who depends on your for financial support, what will happen to them after you are no longer there to help them? Have you provided for them in your estate planning documents?
If it’s been more than 5 years since you’ve updated your estate plan, or you’ve had one of the nine events above, it’s time to sit down with an experienced estate planning attorney and make sure the future of your loved ones is protected.
Our experienced estate litigation attorneys in Oak Brook Illinois understand and can advise you on the best options to protect your loved ones. Contact the Estate & Probate Legal Group at 630-864-5835.
AREAS WE SERVE: Cook, Dupage, Kane, Lake, and Will counties
