We frequently talk about the terms and documents associated with your estate plan. Wills, trusts, guardianship, conservatorship, etc. These are all important elements of a complete plan, but estate planning is more than just a list of documents.
Estate planning is an ongoing process that continues throughout your life. Circumstances, wealth, and assets evolve over time, and your plan needs to keep up with those changes. We regularly work with clients to review their estate plan and update it accordingly.
Don’t Just Set It and Forget It
You can’t afford to simply establish a plan and leave it alone for the rest of your life. Your needs will evolve as will the circumstances for individuals named in your estate plan.
Do you have beneficiaries who have predeceased you? Those assets are left in limbo and subject to probate. Are you still in the good graces of your personal representative? If they are no longer available to fulfill the role then someone else will be appointed by Florida probate courts.
You may think not much has changed, but we work with a number of clients to review old estate planning documents just to find a number of errors or issues. It’s incredibly rare for an estate plan to survive the tests of life.
Be Proactive With Your Plan
You can’t write a will for someone who is already gone. You can’t establish a Power of Attorney after someone is already incapacitated. Situations like this leave all control in the hands of the state. This means the best wishes and intentions of the individual likely never end up being considered.
Proactive estate planning ensures you’re ready for what’s to come. Don’t wait until something happens because it’s often too late. Circumstances you should consider getting ahead of include:
- Divorce
- Birth or death in the family
- Buying or selling a home
- Significant pay raises
- Loss of employment
- Deterioration of health
- Your personal representative is unavailable
- Legal changes
We can’t always anticipate the twists and turns of life, but we must do our best. Your estate plan should reflect the times to come and not just the facts currently present in your life.
Many designations in an estate plan are able to use alternative designations to get ahead of someone predeceasing you or becoming otherwise unavailable to receive assets or serve as a personal representative. We advise that clients use these but do not rely on them in place of updating the language of your plan. Consider a situation where you list your sibling as your personal representative and your spouse as your alternate. Your sibling predeceases you and you get a divorce – now your spouse is in control of your estate.At Alvarez Law Group, our goal is to equip our clients to avoid nightmare scenarios just like this. Our estate planning services are tailored to stand the test of time. To establish your estate plan or update it to reflect the evolving stages of your life, contact our firm today.
Alvarez Law Group
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