Your estate plan may not be effective, if it is not updated to account for changing circumstances.
People sometimes think that if they have an estate plan, their work is done. They put the plan on the shelf and do not consider changes in their lives that will affect the plan, according to Market Watch in “There’s no time like the present to update your estate plan.”
The biggest issue is that you might not have as much time to update your estate plan as you think. Even the most cautious person, with the healthiest habits in the world, can never know what might happen to him.
You do not have time to wait to update your estate plan to take changing circumstances into account. It is important to make changes to your estate plan when those changes first become necessary.
If you do not continuously update your estate plan, then you risk leaving your family in a bad position when you pass away. They are the ones who will have to deal with anything that might have made sense once, but that no longer does.
An estate planning attorney can guide you in creating an estate plan that fits your needs today as well as guide you through necessary updates as circumstances change.
Reference: Market Watch (August 7, 2017) “There’s no time like the present to update your estate plan.”
