Finetuning your estate plan will span your entire lifetime. As your life changes and new experiences happen, you will encounter more than one incident that requires you to update your plan.
Knowing when and how to update your strategy can prevent costly and disappointing mistakes. Collaborating with your legal counsel can help you verify the accuracy of key documents to keep them aligned with your objectives.
Make updates on time
An intention to update or modify your estate plan does not, unfortunately, guarantee those changes. Waiting too long to update your plan may eventually result in time running out. If you previously expressed your intentions to some family members, but your outdated legal documents contradict those statements, a lot of serious problems could follow. Your family might disagree on what you would have wanted. They may have to resort to costly probate processes to reach an agreement.
Perhaps the most important part of updating your estate plan is to do it on time. Additionally, Fidelity suggests talking openly about your desires to close family members. Helping them understand what you want to happen might increase their confidence to act on your behalf when that time comes. Life changes including marriage, divorce, remarriage, relocation, buying a business and accumulating wealth are all reasons why you may need to update your plan.
Clarify changes in writing
To solidify your plan, follow up with your legal counsel to get each of the changes you have made in writing. Keeping your strategy updated on every platform will reduce discord at the time of your death. Clear instructions with formal approval could also help to expedite the process of closing your estate, thus reducing the emotional impact on your surviving family members.
Making changes to an estate plan is a serious issue. Carefully following the process for updating your plan can improve its function in your life.