LAW OFFICE OF CHRISTIE ASSELIN

estate plan with christie blog/vlog

  • Home
  • Estate Planning
  • Probate And Trust Administration
  • FAQs
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Accessibility

5/8/2019

Do I Need To Update My Estate Plan?

Read Now
 
An estate plan is unfortunately not evergreen.  It is meant to last many seasons but its value may decrease over time. You should consider reviewing your estate plan about every 5 to 10 years, or upon a life event such as the below:
  • A change in marital status – you’ve gotten married, separated or divorced
  • You want to add or delete beneficiaries
  • You want to add or delete personal representatives such as trustees or executors
  • You add a child to your family (Click HERE for more information on this topic)
  • You freeze genetic assets (Click HERE for more information on this topic)
  • You acquire a new asset such as a home
  • A change in the tax law
  • A change in your relationship with a personal representative
  • A change in the mental or physical health of a loved one
  • You have inherited property
  • You are or will soon become a grandparent
  • You become a business owner or acquire a business partner
 
When the time comes to update the trust, there are two ways of making the updates.  You can either amend the trust, or amend and restate the trust.  In general, truly simple updates such as changing a successor trustee would only require an amendment.  Amending a trust is a rather simple process.
 
On the contrary, when it comes to significant changes such as changing a beneficiary or making a lot of small changes, it is a best practice to amend and restate the trust. When you restate a trust, the name and date of the trust stay the same, but you will get an entirely new trust that is updated to both your wishes, and the current the law.  
 
For instance, many older trusts, created before the age of the internet, social media, cell phones, and cloud accounts, do not contain any provisions which would empower the trustee to access these digital assets.  Without this power, your loved ones may need a court order to access your digital assets such as iPhone photos, or even airline miles.  Also, prior to the change in tax laws, many trusts were structured as AB trusts to save families from incurring estate tax.  With the federal estate tax exemption so high at this point, these AB trust structures may not be worth the added work that administering that type of trust requires.
 
An added bonus to restating the trust is that nobody ever sees the old trust.  So, if you make any change to your trust such as deleting a beneficiary, or decreasing a beneficiary’s share, which could result in hurt feelings, that beneficiary never has to know about that change.

Drop a line to discuss how I may help you with updating your estate plan.

Share


Comments are closed.
Details
    Picture

    Author

    Hi! I'm Christie Asselin, the attorney behind the Law Office Of Christie Asselin. Welcome to my blog!  I write about estate planning, parenting, wedding law and whatever else I think my clients could benefit from. Welcome! Questions? Drop a line anytime! 

      Email me

    Submit

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    October 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019

    Categories

    All
    Assisted Reproductive Technology
    Estate Planning
    Parenting

    Let's stay connected!

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Privacy Policy
​Terms & Conditions

Blog

Contact

Copyright © 2020
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christie Asselin with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Attorney Advertising This communication may be considered attorney advertising. Previous results are not a guarantee of future outcome.No Attorney Client Relationship The use of any content provided on this site and your provision or submission of any information while using this site will not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Ms. Asselin. Please be aware that any information that you provide by reason of your use of this site is not privileged or confidential. The content of this site is provided solely for informational purposes: it is not intended as and does not constitute legal advice. The information contained herein should not be relied upon or used as a substitute for consultation with legal, accounting, tax, career and/or other professional advertising.
  • Home
  • Estate Planning
  • Probate And Trust Administration
  • FAQs
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Accessibility