Many people fail to update their estate plans regularly, and when they are gone, their estate ends up in the wrong hands. Deserving beneficiaries could even be left out, leading to irreconcilable differences pitting family members against each other.
Therefore, you need to make a point of revising your estate plans periodically to seal any loopholes.
How often should you review your estate plans?
You need to relook at your current estate plans following any significant changes in your life. For instance, if you recently divorced yet you had included your former spouse in your estate plans and probably given them powers of attorney, you may need to revise the current terms.
Equally, if there are new beneficiaries, you would like to add, or if there has been a change in the existing list of heirs, you need to reflect that as well. Doing so will greatly reduce the possibility of legal issues such as will contests.
Changes in the size of your estate should also trigger an update. You do not want to leave anything out when laying your estate plans, nor do you want to leave your beneficiaries assets that no longer belong to you.
Do not leave anything out
Updating your estate plans should not stop with the beneficiaries or the assets and properties of the estate. Instead, you need to reevaluate everything, from the executors you had appointed to any advance directives you had given.
To protect your estate and the beneficiaries after you are gone, you need to ensure your estate plans are as current as possible, even if it means revising them annually. That way, you will rest assured that everything will proceed as you had planned and that all your beneficiaries will get what you intended.