Along with vacations, slowing life down and enjoying the warmer weather, a good personal finance task to assign yourself this summer is to review your family’s estate planning documents. It may not be as much fun as a day in the sun, but keeping your estate plan up to date is important as life changes and other events may cause your plan to be outdated.
Let’s take a look at the key estate documents and your approach to your summertime review.
Start With the Basics
- Last Will and Testament: Your Last Will (one each for spouses) outlines your wishes regarding how your assets owned under your name should be distributed after death. Summertime can be a reflective period in the year, so a good time to review if any major life events (marriage, divorce, a new child) have occurred and whether an update to your Last Will is warranted.
- Durable Power of Attorney (Financial): This document appoints an agent or representative if you are incapacitated and cannot conduct your own financial affairs. Make sure this appointed agent: a) knows of your intent, and b) is still willing and able to represent you in the manner you wish. If you haven’t updated this document in the last 3-5 years, consider doing so.
- Durable Power of Attorney (Healthcare): Also known as a “healthcare proxy,” this document appoints an agent to make healthcare decisions for you, again if you are incapacitated and cannot express or make known your wishes about the medical care you receive. While Durable Power documents are designed to be valid over time, depending upon state law, old powers may be outdated, so it’s best to keep these current with state laws. Upon review, you might decide that a different person should be your agent or if their circumstances have changed.
- Living Will: Your Living Will specifies your wishes regarding life-prolonging procedures in case of severe disability or cognitive impairment. Review this to be sure this document still reflects your current wishes.
Are Your Trusts Still Effective?
- Revocable Living Trusts: If you have living trusts, review the provisions, successor trustees, and beneficiaries to confirm these are still valid. If you’ve purchased new assets (such as a vacation home) or set up new non-IRA investment accounts, consider whether they should be titled in the name of the Living Trust to keep your overall estate plan effective. If you don’t have a Living Trust, it may be time to consider this estate planning tool.
- Other Trusts: If you have other trusts, such as those that hold life insurance or for charitable purposes, review these to be sure they are still working as intended, especially after a life event.
Other Estate-Related Documents
- HIPPA Authorizations: These grant other parties access to your medical records, such as physicians and insurance companies. Review who has such access and whether it is still necessary.
- Letters of Instruction (also known as your Legacy Letter): Review your letter to loved ones that will be read after your passing. Perhaps you’ve attained new wisdom or beliefs you’d like to pass along, or your last wishes to certain family members have changed. Take the time to reflect whether this document needs an update.
When to Review Your Estate Plan?
Estate plans should be reviewed whenever significant changes occur in your life. These include:
- Life Changes: Marriage, divorce, the birth of a child or death of a loved one are all good reasons. Retirement is another big change, as is moving to another state (since probate laws change from state to state).
- Legal changes: Consulting with your estate planning attorney from time to time is worthwhile. Probate laws may not change often, but when they do, it’s important to verify your estate documents are still effective.
- Accuracy: As life progresses and shifts, so might your objectives, beliefs, and intentions. Make sure these are accurate and your estate documents reflect your current goals and values, especially when it comes to legacy and charitable planning.
- Review and consider disputes: No one wants a family dispute over inheritances and a family member’s last wishes, but these do occur. A thoughtful and well-crafted estate plan can help avoid family acrimony. If you and your professionals do implement changes or update your documents, sign the new documents as needed to make them effective.
Steps to Take in Your Review
- List all your significant assets and financial accounts. Confirm these are accounted for in your Last Will, your Trust(s), and reflect all assets and liabilities. Consider whether they are properly titled (in your name, joint name with your spouse, or a Living Trust).
- Review beneficiary designations to verify these are accurate and reflect your wishes, especially after a marriage, divorce, or if a family member (and potential beneficiary) has passed away.
- Review the key individuals (powers agents, executor(ix), trustees, etc.) to be sure these individuals are still appropriate in their intended roles within your plan.
- Consult with your estate attorney, tax advisor, and wealth manager to feel confident your objectives are still being met with these documents. In particular, tax laws change frequently, so your tax advisor may be especially helpful in recommending amendments to your estate plan to avoid unnecessary taxes or take advantage of opportunities that arise from changes in tax legislation.
RVW does not provide legal advice. This is generic in nature, may contain inaccuracies and may not be applicable to your situation. Do not act on any information above. Rely only on advice from your estate planning lawyer
Selwyn Gerber, CPA, Founder and Chief Strategist | RVW Wealth LLC.
1880 Century Park East, Suite 200 | Los Angeles, CA 90067
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