How Often Should I Audit My Estate Plan?

Auditing your estate plan sets you up to review your existing strategies, tools, and documents, ideally with the help of a knowledgeable estate planning attorney to discuss what’s still relevant and what may require updates. Many different circumstances might prompt you to work with a talented estate planning attorney in VA to set things up for the first time.

Perhaps you recently lost a loved one and saw what a mess it was to wrap things up in probate and then to pass on assets if that person didn’t have a will. Or maybe a recent health scare made you wonder if you have communicated your healthcare wishes to your loved ones.

Getting your estate plan drafted is not a task that should be completed once and then ignored. Filing the documents away for safekeeping doesn’t mean you can forget about them. Circumstances in your life or in broader culture, such as changes in state or federal laws, may call on you to make edits to your estate plan. A good guideline is to look at your estate plan at least every two to three years if there are no major changes in your life that call you to do it sooner.

A lot can happen during that timeframe, including the addition of a new child, the passing away of someone appointed as your trustee or estate plan executor, a marriage or a divorce. There may also be circumstances that apply from outside issues, such as changes in the federal tax exemption rate, or you’ve moved to a new state and need to ensure that your estate plan is drafted for your new location. All of these circumstances should prompt you to contact an estate planning attorney sooner than every year.