It’s laudable, of course, if you have already expended the necessary time, effort and well-considered thought necessary to craft a soundly tailored and forward-thinking estate plan to provide for your family, lawfully avoid taxes, fund your favorite charity, establish a personal legacy and so forth. Undoubtedly, you felt a sense of accomplishment and relief in the wake of doing so.
Because it’s important, and you know that. Now don’t be remiss in periodically revisiting your plan and strategies and making material changes when necessary.
Many people in Massachusetts and elsewhere find that, once they have put a plan in place that they know makes strong sense for their families, it is far from an arduous ordeal to keep it relevant and updated.
And so they don’t just let it wither on the proverbial vine.
Because life is flux, and things — important things — always change.
A recent overview of estate planning considerations that warrant a periodic revisiting duly notes that, stressing the utility in perusing your plan anew every once in a while with the estate administration attorney who helped you craft it and who can closely assist with any material adjustments that might need to be made.
And, truly, it is likely that some modifications will need to be attended to. Family members grow into adulthood. Some marry, others divorce and, of course, some pass away. Family businesses are sometimes created or dissolved. The disability of a loved one might mandate a change in legal instruments, like a trust. Perhaps anticipated treatment of real property or other assets will yield tax-related effects. Births might alter inheritance choices and/or beneficiary designations in insurance policies and investment vehicles.
That list goes on of course, being as organic and varied as is every family across Massachusetts and the United States.
As the above-cited planning primer notes, “knowledge is power.”
That adage rings fundamentally true with estate-related considerations. A proven estate administration attorney can help a client both implement a sound and comprehensive planning strategy and make necessary changes to it when they become necessary.