Experts suggest that you review your estate plan every three or so years. This can feel like a monumental task, especially if you have a detailed and lengthy estate plan. But fortunately, you do not need to review the entirety of it every time.
In fact, there are certain aspects of your estate plan that you should focus your energy toward instead. But what are those parts?
Beneficiaries and key figures
Forbes looks at the parts of your estate plan you may want to prioritize during review. They suggest prioritizing anything that has to do with beneficiaries, assets, finances and people with power over your end of life plans. In the case of the latter, this includes your power of attorney and health care proxy. These individuals have the say in your end of life process if you cannot make sound decisions yourself. Thus, you want to ensure you can trust them to do what you need them to do.
Next, look over your beneficiaries. As life changes, it is only natural for the people in it to change, too. Some may enter your life and others may leave. You want to make sure everyone gets what you want them to get. Likewise, if someone has passed on or become estranged, you want to remove them from your estate.
Assets and debts
Finally, you want to ensure your finances are accurately reflected. This means keeping tabs of all big net positive and negative changes. Examples may include coming into a big inheritance or filing for bankruptcy due to debt.
After locating all major important changes, you can edit your plan accordingly. While you should review your entire estate plan, you do not have to do it so often. Like this, you can keep your plan mostly up to date.