Revision of an estate plan can be an involved and comprehensive process depending on how many documents and strategies you’d already had created. If your estate planning documents do not meet your current estate planning objectives or if there have been significant changes in the state or federal landscape since you last updated these materials, it is the perfect opportunity to discuss your options with an estate planning lawyer.
As the recent death of Black Panther actor Chad Boseman points out, failing to create or update a plan can leave your loved ones scrambling.
Revision of an estate plan requires looking at the existing documentation. This could be very simple if you only have a basic last will and testament but could be much more complex if you have a variety of estate planning documents, such as beneficiary designation forms, powers of attorney, health care proxies and trusts.
Even items that pass outside of probate, such as life insurance policies, assets inside retirement accounts and joint and pay on death bank accounts are worthy of reviewing beneficiary designation forms on an annual basis.
Failing to update these materials could prove problematic in the event that you were to suddenly pass away since the companies managing these accounts are responsible for passing them on to the person most recently listed on beneficiary designation forms.
The law can’t tell the difference between your verbal intentions and your written ones- interpretation of your estate plan falls to what was written down and signed in your plan or on beneficiary forms. So make sure when something shifts that you update it- otherwise, new children or grandchildren might not receive anything you intended for them and someone you didn’t want getting any assets, like an ex-spouse, could legally walk away with those items.
For assistance with updating your existing estate plan, set aside time to meet with an estate planning law firm in MA.
