Add this important task to your calendar: make an appointment for an estate plan checkup. For many of the same reasons doctors recommend regular medical checkups, you should do regular estate plan checkups. If you don’t yet have such a plan, get one today. Did your estate attorney drafted a working copy in the past? Bring it into the estate attorney office for a once-over.
Do I Need an Estate Plan Checkup?
Why plan for the future? For the same reason you save for retirement! If you become incapacitated, in the absence of an estate plan, you and your property could land in a court-supervised guardianship. Or, after you die, your property and loved ones may face expensive and explosive probate proceedings. Worse yet, failure to take the time to craft an estate plan could leave the state where you reside at the time of your death in the driver’s seat. Laws in most states set forth how to apportion property. You likely wouldn’t agree with the way they divvy everything up. Odds are, your heirs won’t appreciate the state’s decisions, either. Thus, an estate plan checkup makes sense.
Checkup on Wealth
Many people mistakenly believe that estate planning is for wealthy people. This simply isn’t true. If you maintain a bank account, retirement account, home, or a family, you should come up with a plan for what happens if you become incapacitated or die. No matter how healthy you are, this will eventually happen. As Jim Morrison of The Doors wrote, “No one gets out of this alive.” While the complexity of the estate plan will vary depending on your circumstances. Your estate planning attorney should assemble your estate plans with the legal formalities required to create a valid will, trust, health care directive, and POA in your state.
Do you already have an estate plan? How Old Is Your Estate Plan?
- If your estate plan is already in place, please pull your documents, dust them off, and look at the date you signed them.
- Were your documents signed in the 80s or 90s, or, worse yet, before 1980? If so, run, don’t walk, to an estate planning attorney. Update out-of-date documents ASAP.
- Did you sign your documents between 2000 and 2009? Aside from the federal estate tax exemption jumping from $675,000 to $3,500,000 during that time period, state estate taxes disappeared in many states. Because of the significant changes in federal and state estate taxes, documents from this time period may be out of date and need to be tweaked in some shape or form.
- Did you sign your documents between 2010 and 2017? Federal estate taxes, gift taxes, and generation-skipping transfer taxes went through major changes during these years, and “portability” of the federal estate tax exemption between married couples was introduced.
- Unfortunately, while your estate planning documents may only be a few years old, they very likely do not take advantage of the opportunities made available from recent changes in federal tax laws. And, it’s not just tax laws that are changing – modifications to state laws governing wills, trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney may warrant some revisions to your estate planning documents as well.
Last, but not least, regardless of when you signed estate planning documents, think about the life changes that have happened since you signed on the dotted line.
- Did you get married or divorced?
- Are you a parent or grandparent?
- Did you move to a new state?
- Did you sell your business?
- Retire?
- Experience a change in assets?
- Win the lottery?
- Experience major changes in your family or financial situation?
Checkup on Estate Planning: Not a One-And-Done Deal
We are here to help you navigate the changes that have occurred since you had your estate plan prepared and ensure your wishes are still being carried out as you envisioned. For those needing an estate plan, we are here now and in the future to mold your estate plan as you move through the various stages of life.
Estate planning is not a static event that you can grudgingly do once and then forget about it. On the contrary, estate planning is a continuing process, because life is a moving target that is full of constant change: Your estate plan needs to change as your life changes.
About Skvarna Law Firm in Glendora and Upland, California
A skilled attorney can assist with your estate plan. Contact us today to learn about your options (909) 608-7671. We operate offices in Glendora and Upland, California. We provide legal services for individuals living in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside Counties. This includes the cities of Upland, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Colton, Rialto, Chino, Chino Hills, Glendora, Claremont, Montclair, Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, Azusa, Covina, West Covina, Diamond Bar, Walnut, La Puente, Corona, Norco & Mira Loma. Visit SkvarnaLaw.com to learn more.
