When Should You Update Your Estate Plan?

Once you’ve created an estate plan, it’s important to keep it up to date. You should revisit your plan after certain key life events, or approximately every three years.

On this show, host Lou Pierro is joined by attorneys Victor Oberting and Kristen Peck to explain why a review is so crucial. For instance, as your estate grows, you may want to create a plan that minimizes your estate taxes. If you have a plan that focuses on tax planning, but you experience a decrease in assets, you may want to change your plan to focus on other things.

A major change such as divorce or death of a spouse also calls for revisiting your plan. It is likely that your spouse is named in some capacity in your estate plan — for example, as beneficiary, executor, or power of attorney. If you have a trust, you will need to make sure your spouse is no longer a trustee or beneficiary of the trust. You will also need to change the beneficiary on your retirement plans and insurance policies.