Once you create an estate plan, it can safeguard your assets, manage your affairs, and help your loved ones get the most benefits from your estate. These benefits will only apply if the estate plan remains enforceable and if it continues to match your own preferences. An estate planning attorney can help make important updates as time passes to ensure the documents in your estate plan are up-to-date and accurate.
You should review your estate planning documents every few years to determine if they need to be updated. If you no longer wish for the same medical directives, you need to update that document. If your relationships with your loved ones change and you want another individual in charge of the management of your estate, your trust and will must be updated.
Changes That Could Necessitate an Update
There are distinct life changes that should trigger an update of your estate plan because they likely change significant aspects of your life and finances. These changes include:
- Divorce or Separation
Legal separation or divorce can affect who you placed in charge of important affairs like trust and will administration or power of attorney abilities. You may also want to change the individuals listed as beneficiaries to your estate or as guardians of your children, depending on your relationship with your ex-partner and their family.
Divorce, in particular, can legally alter the assets you own. If your estate plan lists many assets that are now your ex-spouses after property division, the estate plan may not even be enforceable.
- Marriage
Marriage also has a significant effect on the important individuals in your life and the assets that you own. You may want to add your spouse into important positions in your estate plan, such as the primary beneficiary, your power of attorney, or an executor. You may also want to include your spouse’s family members. Your estate plan can also now address the new assets you and your spouse own. You could also consider a joint estate plan.
Marriage has unique effects if you are getting remarried and/or have children from a prior relationship. An estate plan can preserve the inheritance rights of your children from prior and current relationships, but it must be updated to reflect those changes.
- Additions to the Family
When you or others in your family adopt or give birth to a new child or grandchild or get married, your family grows. You may want to update your estate plan to reflect those additions, whether to ensure your children have appointed guardians, create trusts for them, or other updates.
- Losses in the Family
Death or estrangement of family members can also affect the designations in your estate plan. If your estate plan gives inheritance to a family member who is no longer alive, and you did not name any contingent beneficiary, the process of distributing those assets becomes more complicated. Updating your estate plan to reflect these life changes and adding contingent planning is important.
- Moving States
If you move to a new state, you face a new set of laws for property, taxes, wills, trusts, and other estate planning issues. It’s crucial to ensure your estate planning documents are enforceable in your current state. If you still have assets in the state you last lived in, it’s crucial you understand how estate planning should address out-of-state assets.
- Changes to Beneficiary Needs
Your beneficiaries can also go through changes in their lives that should prompt an update to your estate plan. If a minor beneficiary turns 18, you may no longer need to have a trust set up in the same way. If a loved one has suffered an illness or disability, you may need to alter how they receive their inheritance to better protect them or their ability to earn federal benefits.
FAQs
Q: When Should You Revisit and Possibly Revise Your Estate Plan?
A: It is advised that you revisit and consider revising your estate plan every few years. This allows you to address any potential changes to your life, finances, or intentions. Once you create an estate plan, you should not consider that to be the end of the estate planning process. While the creation is a significant step, revising the plan is important to ensure it remains enforceable and that it enforces your most current wishes.
Q: What Are Intestate Succession Laws in Illinois?
A: Intestate succession laws in Illinois apply when the deceased has no will. The first steps of intestate succession are as follows, depending on the surviving family members:
- Half the estate passes to a surviving spouse, and half the estate passes to the descendants of the deceased in equal shares.
- The estate passes to the descendants in equal shares if there is no surviving spouse.
- The estate passes to a surviving spouse if there are no descendants.
Q: What Does an Estate Plan Include?
A: An estate plan can include numerous documents depending on your needs, as well as the needs of your assets and estate and your intended beneficiaries. Some of these documents may include:
- Last will and testament
- Guardianship designation
- Revocable or irrevocable trusts
- Advance healthcare directives and a living will
- Durable medical or financial powers of attorney
- Beneficiary designations of accounts
- Retirement accounts
Estate planning is a complex process, but it can provide significant protection for your estate, loved ones, and yourself.
Q: Which of the Following Life Events Should Trigger Someone to Review Their Estate Plan?
A: There are several life events that should trigger you to analyze your estate plan and determine if a modification is necessary. This includes:
- Your marriage, remarriage, or divorce
- Marriages, births, or adoptions in your family
- The loss of family members or of those you named as beneficiaries, an executor, trustees, or powers of attorney
- Gaining or losing financial assets
- Beginning a business
- A family member or beneficiary becomes disabled
- A minor child or other beneficiary becomes an adult
- Moving states
Contact Stange Law Firm to Draft or Update Your Estate Plan
There are numerous other changes to state laws and to your finances that can affect your estate plan. Contact Stange Law Firm today to speak with an Illinois estate planning attorney when you need to update your estate plan.
