After creating your estate plan, you should feel a sense of accomplishment. After all, you have completed a big chunk of potentially complicated legal work that likely took you a lot of time, effort and energy to do.
But did you know that your estate planning does not end once you create the plan? Estate plans require consistent and continued maintenance throughout your life, as well.
Examining areas of change
It is important for your estate plan to reflect your life at every stage in the most accurate way possible. This means you will likely need to go in and constantly reevaluate and reexamine it over time, ensuring that it still reflects your wishes and desires.
Forbes discusses some parts of your estate plan that you will want to take a look at sooner rather than later. These include the areas most likely to change over time, such as your assets, your will and your beneficiaries.
Assets and beneficiaries
Assets often change many times throughout your life, constantly fluctuating between losses and gains. Of course, you do not need to review or change your plan every time you lose or gain a few hundred dollars. But any time you see significant gain or loss, you want your plan to reflect that.
Likewise, the people in your life will change over time. You surely do not want an ex-spouse inheriting half of your estate, nor do you want to leave out a newly adopted relative or a new spouse. Any major relationship change should end up reflected in your plan.
Finally, change important documents like your will in order to reflect these changes. In keeping it all updated, you can ensure that nothing will go awry after your death.