How frequently should Wills, Living Trusts and Powers of Attorney be updated? In this Elder Law and Estate Planning Minute, Wes Coulson offers his advice for updating these important estate planning documents.
Wills, Living Trusts and Powers of Attorney: How often should they be updated?
Transcript:
Hello, I’m Wes Coulson and this is you Estate Planning Minute. Let’s talk today about how frequently you should update your estate planning documents like Wills, Living Trusts and Powers of Attorney. I think, the general rule of thumb on that is you should do that every three to five years, maybe less frequently as you are younger, more frequently as you are older – laws change, circumstances change. Now, as an exception to that, if something happens (you want to disinherit somebody or somebody has a tremendous life change – they win the lottery and don’t need to be an heir anymore) you should go ahead and address that as soon as you’re aware of that situation. Now, having said that, I want to make sure you also understand that getting documents reviewed doesn’t necessarily mean that they will need to be changed. If they’ve been drafted well in the first place with an eye toward looking at things that could happen in the future and addressing them in the documents originally, they should be able to withstand successfully a lot of changes in life circumstances without need to change the documents. A little bit of an advertisement at the end, we very much pride ourselves in making sure that our documents are drafted that way. Thanks for your time. Have a wonderful day.
For more about Wills, Living Trusts and Powers of Attorney, visit these articles:
- Safeguarding Your Estate Plan
- Misconceptions about Wills
- Why Second Marriage Spouses Need a Living Trust
- Not all financial Powers of Attorney are created equal
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (877)995-6876 or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
