Once you've created an estate plan, it is important to keep it up to date. You will need to revisit your plan after certain key life events.
The Ball has dropped and that means another year is upon us. Likely, you’ve made some New Year’s Resolutions.
Hopefully, one of your resolutions is to update your estate plan.
In reality, your estate plan is like a living thing, at least inasmuch as you are. As things change in your life – and the lives of your loved ones, so, too, do your goals to protect everyone you love and everything you have.
As a rule of thumb, then, whenever your life changes in a significant way remember to review and maybe even change your plans. For a little additional reading on this topic, check out a recent Elder Law Answer’s article here.
Unfortunately, there also are other reasons to review your plans unrelated to life changes. Yes, the ever changing legal environment requires careful monitoring. What may have worked before may not work now if the laws have changed.
We are leaving a politically turbulent year and are plunging straight into one that may prove even more troubling. Indeed, by the end of the year we will have to rewrite the laws about the estate and gift taxes, amongst many other important provisions, and that may mean radical change.
Make 2012 a year for awareness of your estate planning and how it reflects the course of your life and, what is more troublesome, with the course of law.
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Or you can contact our office to make an appointment to update your estate plan.
Reference: Elder Law Answers (updated December 12, 2011) “When Should You Update Your Estate Plan?”