I’m going to answer this question like a good lawyer.  It depends. 🙂 It depends on if you and your family have experienced major changes – thus, updating your estate plan for some, might be one year after you create it and for others it could be 3 or 5 years.   But ultimately, what is most important is to keep your estate plan up-to-date.  Which means you should pull it out from the safe, or take the binder off the shelf, at a minimum of every three years to ensure that it is always reflecting your life in its current state.  Now, without further ado, let me explain what I mean by up-to-date. And when I say “Estate Plan” I don’t just mean your Last Will and Testament, I mean all of the documents that encompass your plan just in case you are incapacitated or inconveniently pass away (as when is death ever convenient? Exactly.)

 

An Up-to-Date Estate Plan has the Right People Doing the Right Things at the Right Time

Our lives change.  People die.  People are born.  People move away. People change addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. You get a new bank account, you buy a new car, you start investing on Robinhood, or you purchase a house.  Our relationships with different people grow, evolve or end depending on many factors.  All of these details about our lives need to be reflected in our estate and incapacity plan.  

In your plan you have assigned many different people, and some people have really important jobs.  For example I once had my sister as my financial power of attorney in my plan.  But three years later, after I moved to a different state, got engaged, my business grew, and I had a full time bookkeeper and office manager, I changed my financial power of attorney to my fiance along with my bookkeeper and office manager so that the right people, with the right access to my phone and bank accounts could step in and do the right job at the right time. My sister didn’t have access to all of these things, she is still a great and organized person and I love her, but she doesn’t need to be my Financial Power of Attorney because it would be extremely inconvenient for her and everyone in my life if she were. So who are the people in your neighborhood?  If you drafted your estate plan 15 years ago and you have since moved states, gotten married or divorced – it is likely very much time to update your estate plan.  

Furthermore, and not unimportant – remember the roles you assign in your legal documents to individuals – like your Successor Trustee, the Executor of your Will, your Financial and Medical Powers of Attorney – these are real jobs, that, depending the state of your estate plan, can involve significant amounts of work. They are not an honor. No one finding themselves in the Executor of an estate stands up and gives a Thank You Speech to the Academy. You want to appoint someone capable of doing the job in case of emergency, with a good sense of attention to detail, who can easily access the documents and data necessary to take care of business if you are unconscious in the hospital or worse. 

 

Estate Planning is NOT One and Done, Set it and Forget It

When clients come to me the first session we do is a Life and Legacy Planning Session.  Why?  Because we are actually not planning for your death, we are planning for your Life And your Legacy.   This is more than semantics – it is the truth.   Estate planning is about identifying what is important to you and who is important to you in THIS LIFE that you are living right now.  So that in case of emergency, those people who are important to you can step in and protect what is important to you.   We do not want folks you care about left sifting through piles of papers hoping to find your bank account information.  No one wants to be left the task of spelunking through your computer files hoping to stumble across your password sheet in the dark. But this is the reality for most families when someone dies because 75% of us haven’t gotten around to making any type of plan and of that 25% who have – guess what?  A majority of those plans are Out-of-Date! 😞

Estate planning is also about organizing your life. It is taking care of the things that are important to us.  But we live dynamic lives. The only constant is change.  We change our minds about what is important to us constantly. So that is why our Estate Plan (which includes the plan for emergencies) needs to be a living document and updated regularly…  This includes the legal documents and all the ancillary extra non-legal planning documents around it (e.g. your password plan, your list of accounts, your inventory of your collection of priceless antique bass guitars, your grandfather’s buffalo head penny collection, etc).

Essentially, I want you to think about your estate plan like a carton of milk. No one drinks expired milk right?  In fact it can really ruin your cereal if you do not check the date before pouring. Our choices when we plan expire, based on how we are living our lives.  So we do not want to ruin our legacy by not updating our estate plan to ensure that all of the details are fresh. 

 

Here is a List of Choices or Changes to Prompt you to Refresh your Estate Plan

Divorce

Marriage

Move to a new State

Death in the family

Birth of a new family member

Children getting married

Children going to college

Creditors or Creditor Issues

Adopt a New Furry Family Member

Purchase of a house / Selling a house

New Life Insurance/ New Investment

Starting a business / Ending a business

Newly inherited money

519 Educational Plans / College Funds

 

Keep It Fresh, Keep It Aligned, Keep It You

Your estate plan is more than a set of documents, it is a reflection of your life, your values, your relationships, and your vision for how things should be handled if you are no longer able to speak for yourself. That’s why it deserves your attention not just once, but regularly. 

Updating your estate plan is not just about reacting to life events. It is also about proactively ensuring that your wishes are honored and that the people you trust (who are capable of doing the job you assigned) have the clarity and tools they need to act on your behalf. Think of it as a routine check-up for your life plan – just like you visit the doctor, change the oil in your car, or review your finances, you should also review your estate plan every few years (ideally every three), even if nothing major seems to have changed. And a good estate planning attorney builds this three to five year review cycle into their relationship with you. But I encourage you to take personal responsibility for this aspect of your life – because that which we focus on expands.

Remember, the goal of an estate plan is not just to plan for death. It is to ensure peace of mind while you are alive for yourself and others, and to ease the pain for those you love when you are no longer here. A well-tended estate plan can reduce confusion, avoid conflict, and provide the kind of legacy you meant to leave, which is one of intention, care, and organization. So take the time to review your plan while you can, talk it through with your attorney, and make updates when needed. Your future self, and your loved ones will thank you.

 

Have a Stale Estate Plan? Or Concerned Yours Might be?  Book an Estate Plan Review Today!

As part of every single one of my plans for my clients I include, in my service, a three year review.  This involves a deep dive into their current state of life, an abundance audit of their insurance, a review of their legal documents, and an inventory of their asset list to ensure that (as I mentioned above) everything is aligned and up-to-date.  It also involves my reaching out to remind you that this three year review is necessary.  

If you are not yet a client of mine and are reading this I would like to invite you to have me review your plan or Get Your Plan Started. We go over a checklist with you to confirm that everything is not only up-to-date but in alignment with your goals and that your plan is 100% complete, 100% properly funded, and is comprehensive in its protections and opportunities. Booking this review is as easy as clicking the link below to get you started.