Reasons to Update Your Estate Plan
Once you go through the process of estate planning with a lawyer in New Jersey, are you finished with the process forever or will you need to revisit your estate plan at different points in time? This is a common question, and the answer is a straightforward one: you will always want to revisit your estate plan, even if you do not make any changes after assessing everything. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to revisit your estate plan every few years with your estate planning lawyer. You may have experienced a change in circumstances that will necessitate an amendment to one or more parts of your estate plan, or you may have simply changed your mind about something in one of your estate planning documents.
The following are some of the most frequent reasons that people do want to make changes to their estate planning documents, including to: wills, advance directives, beneficiary lists, and trusts.
Divorce
Divorce is one of the most common reasons that people make changes to their estate plans. Usually, a spouse is one of the primary beneficiaries in a person’s will and is the beneficiary identified for insurance policies, bank accounts, and more. A spouse is also usually the party designated as the agent in a durable power of attorney for health care. Yet when a divorce happens, spouses typically do not want to leave one another in these positions — as people to inherit assets or to make important health care decisions. As such, there is usually a desire to amend or rewrite a will, and to make important changes to other documents.
Death in the Family
A death in the family commonly necessitates certain estate planning changes. For example, if a beneficiary, or an agency in a power of attorney dies, it will be important to amend those documents so that they function as you want them to.
Birth in the Family
When there is a birth in a family, there is often a desire to revise estate planning documents, especially wills and trusts. If you recently had a child yourself, it will be important to identify the guardian of that child in the event of your death, and to include the child as a beneficiary of your assets. Grandparents and other relatives also may want to amend estate planning documents to include the new child.
Change in Family Dynamics
Sometimes there is simply a change in family dynamics that necessitates a revision of estate planning documents. Perhaps a person who agreed to serve as executor no longer wants that role. Or, there may have been a falling out or estrangement in a family such that one of the family members wants to revise their will or their powers of attorney.
There is no requirement that you show a change in circumstances to change or revise any of your estate planning documents — you can do so for any reason with assistance from your estate planning attorney as long as you still meet the requirements.
Contact a Summit Estate Planning Attorney
Do you need assistance reviewing your estate plan, or making changes to one or more estate planning documents? One of the experienced New Jersey estate planning lawyers at Dempsey, Dempsey & Sheehan can begin working with you today. Contact us to learn more about getting started on your estate plan review or making amendments to your estate planning documents.
Source:
law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/title-3b/
