Creating an Estate Plan Is Important. Keeping It Current Is Just as Important.

 

For many families, completing an estate plan feels like checking an important item off a very long financial planning list.

 

You meet with an attorney. You create a trust and will. Powers of attorney and healthcare directives are signed. Beneficiaries are identified, and the documents are carefully stored somewhere safe.

Then life moves on.

 

Ten years later, the documents may still be sitting in exactly the same place, but almost everything around them has changed. Your children are adults. Your net worth has grown. You have purchased or sold property. People you originally named as trustees or agents may no longer be the people you would choose today. Your retirement accounts have increased substantially, and your ideas about what you want your wealth to accomplish may have evolved.

 

This leads to an important retirement planning question:  "How often should I review my trust and estate plan?"

 

There is no single review schedule that is appropriate for everyone. As a practical planning approach, reviewing your estate plan every few years can help identify whether something deserves attention, but certain life and financial events should prompt an earlier review.

 

The more important principle is simple: your estate plan should evolve as your life evolves.

 

Why Isn't Creating an Estate Plan Once Enough?

 

An estate plan is created based on a snapshot of your life at a particular moment.

 

It reflects your assets, family relationships, wishes, state of residence, and applicable laws at that time.

 

But those things change.

 

Estate planning also involves more than determining what happens after death. Documents such as powers of attorney and advance healthcare directives can establish who may make financial or healthcare decisions if you become unable to do so yourself. California Courts emphasizes that these documents are part of planning for events that can occur during your lifetime, not simply after death.

 

That makes an outdated estate plan potentially relevant long before an inheritance occurs.

 

A periodic review gives you an opportunity to ask whether the people, assets, and instructions contained in your plan still reflect your life today.

 

A Good Starting Point: Review the Plan Every Few Years

 

Rather than waiting until something goes wrong, consider putting your estate plan on a regular financial planning calendar.

 

For many families, a review every few years provides an opportunity to revisit the major components without unnecessarily recreating the plan each year.

Importantly, a review does not necessarily mean a revision.

 

You may sit down with your financial advisor and estate planning attorney and conclude that everything continues to reflect your wishes. If so, that is valuable information.

 

The objective is simply to avoid discovering fifteen or twenty years later that a plan created for a very different version of your life was never revisited.

 

Some Life Events Should Trigger an Immediate Review

 

A calendar-based review is useful, but life doesn't always operate according to a schedule.

 

Certain events can significantly change your financial or family circumstances and may warrant reviewing your estate plan sooner.

 

These can include:

 

• Marriage or remarriage
• Divorce
• Death of a spouse or beneficiary
• Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild
• A significant change in wealth
• Buying or selling real estate
• Moving to another state
• Retirement
• Selling a business
• Receiving a substantial inheritance
• A significant health diagnosis
• Changes involving a trustee, executor, or power of attorney
• Changes in family relationships or circumstances

 

You don't necessarily need to amend your documents every time something changes. But meaningful transitions are good reasons to ask whether the existing plan still works.

 

Retirement Is an Especially Good Time for a Review

 

Retirement itself can be an important estate planning milestone.

 

Your financial life may look dramatically different at 65 than it did when you created your estate plan at 45.

 

Perhaps you've accumulated considerably more wealth. Your children may now be adults with families of their own. You may own multiple properties. Your retirement accounts may represent a much larger percentage of your estate, and the people you originally selected to make financial or healthcare decisions may now be older themselves.

 

Your priorities may have changed too.

 

Earlier in life, the primary objective may have been protecting minor children. In retirement, the conversation may shift toward providing for a surviving spouse, helping grandchildren, charitable giving, planning for incapacity, or determining how wealth should eventually pass to the next generation.

 

Retirement planning and estate planning become increasingly connected as these priorities evolve.

 

Review the People, Not Just the Documents

 

Estate planning reviews often focus on legal language.

 

Sometimes the most important question is much simpler:  "Are these still the people I want making decisions?"

 

Consider the individuals named as your successor trustee, executor, financial power of attorney, healthcare agent, and guardians if applicable.

 

Perhaps the sibling you named twenty years ago is now elderly. Maybe your children were too young to assume responsibility when the documents were drafted but are now capable adults. Perhaps relationships have changed.

California Courts recommends making sure the people selected to manage finances, healthcare, or property know they have been chosen, understand where important documents are located, and can access the information they may eventually need.

 

The right person twenty years ago isn't automatically the right person today.

 

Your Trust Should Reflect What You Own Today

 

Another common estate planning issue isn't the trust document itself.

 

It's what happened after the trust was created.

 

You may have purchased a new home, opened investment accounts, inherited property, or acquired other assets without considering how they fit into your existing estate structure.

 

A living trust generally governs assets that have been appropriately transferred or titled to the trust. California Courts notes that property placed in a living trust can generally pass to beneficiaries through the trust rather than probate, illustrating why asset ownership and the estate documents need to be coordinated.

 

That makes an estate plan review more than a legal-document review.

 

It should also consider what you own and how you own it.

 

Beneficiary Designations Deserve Their Own Review

 

Some of your largest assets may not transfer according to your will.

 

Retirement accounts, for example, generally pass according to the beneficiary designation maintained with the retirement plan or IRA custodian. The IRS notes that retirement-account beneficiaries are designated under plan procedures and that inherited accounts are then subject to specific distribution rules based partly on who the beneficiary is.

 

Life insurance and other beneficiary-designated assets can operate similarly.

 

This creates the possibility of an estate plan that looks correct on paper while beneficiary designations tell a different story.

 

For example, an old retirement account might still name a beneficiary selected decades ago. A trust may have been updated following a marriage or divorce while a beneficiary designation was overlooked.

 

Periodic reviews should therefore include the entire estate structure, not simply the trust and will.

 

Your Family's Circumstances May Have Changed

 

Estate planning is about more than deciding who receives what.

 

It's also about determining how and when assets should be managed and distributed.

 

Perhaps your children were minors when the trust was written and are now financially responsible adults.

 

Or perhaps one beneficiary is experiencing circumstances that make an outright inheritance less desirable. There may be a divorce, disability, addiction issue, creditor concern, or simply a beneficiary who isn't comfortable managing substantial wealth.

 

You may also have developed different goals.

 

Maybe you want to help grandchildren with education. Perhaps charitable giving has become more important. You may want your children involved in family philanthropy or have new ideas about how inherited wealth should be used.

 

These are personal and legal decisions that should be discussed with a qualified estate planning attorney. The important point is that your estate plan should reflect the family you have today rather than the family you had when the documents were originally drafted.

 

A Significant Increase in Wealth Can Change the Conversation

 

Successful retirement planning can create another reason to revisit your estate plan: your wealth may have grown substantially.

 

An estate plan developed when you had $1 million of assets may deserve another look if your financial circumstances are dramatically different years later.

 

Greater wealth may introduce additional questions involving gifting, charitable planning, trust structures, estate taxes, real estate, business interests, or multigenerational wealth planning.

 

That does not mean additional wealth automatically requires a more complicated estate plan.

 

Complexity should serve a purpose.

 

The objective is to determine whether your current structure still accomplishes what you want it to accomplish given the assets and circumstances you have today.

 

Changes in Tax and Estate Laws Matter Too

 

Estate planning rules do not remain static.

 

Federal and state laws can change, and those changes may affect planning strategies that were appropriate when your documents were created.

 

Retirement-account rules have also changed over time, making beneficiary planning particularly important. Current IRS rules distinguish among spouses, eligible designated beneficiaries, other individual beneficiaries, and non-individual beneficiaries when determining how inherited retirement accounts may need to be distributed.

 

You don't need to personally follow every change in estate or tax law.

 

That's one reason periodic reviews with qualified legal, tax, and financial professionals can be valuable.

 

Don't Forget Incapacity Planning

 

Estate planning conversations naturally gravitate toward death and inheritance.

 

But for retirees, incapacity planning may be equally important.

 

Who manages your finances if you're alive but unable to do so?

Who communicates with doctors?

Who can access financial information?

Does that person know where your estate documents are?

 

California's estate-planning guidance specifically identifies financial powers of attorney and advance healthcare directives as tools that can help prepare for circumstances in which someone is temporarily or permanently unable to manage their own affairs.

 

As you age, reviewing these documents—and the people named within them—can become an increasingly important part of your overall retirement plan.

 

Make Sure Someone Knows Where Everything Is

 

A perfectly drafted estate plan isn't particularly helpful if no one can find it.

 

Your spouse, successor trustee, executor, or another appropriate trusted person should generally know where important documents are stored and which professionals should be contacted.

 

That doesn't necessarily mean giving family members unrestricted access to every financial account today.

It means creating a roadmap.

 

California Courts similarly recommends making sure the appropriate person has access to planning documents, knows where important papers are kept, and has a way to locate account and other important information when necessary.

 

Your estate plan should be designed not only to communicate your wishes, but also to make those wishes practical for the people who may eventually have to carry them out.

 

Think of Estate Planning as an Ongoing Process

 

Perhaps the biggest misconception about estate planning is that it is a project.

 

Complete the trust. Sign the documents. Put them in a binder. Done.

 

A better way to think about estate planning is as part of your broader financial planning process.

 

Your investments are reviewed as markets and goals change. Your retirement income plan evolves as you age. Your tax strategy may change as income changes.

 

Your estate plan deserves the same attention.

 

It does not need constant modification, but it should remain connected to the rest of your financial life.

 

Questions Worth Asking During an Estate Plan Review

 

When reviewing your trust and estate plan, consider discussing questions such as:

 

• Do these documents still reflect my current wishes?
• Are the people I've named still the people I want serving in those roles?
• Have I acquired assets that aren't coordinated with my trust?
• Are my retirement account and insurance beneficiaries current?
• Has my family situation changed?
• Has my net worth changed substantially?
• Have I moved to another state?
• Do my incapacity documents still reflect my wishes?
• Do the appropriate people know where my documents are located?
• Have changes in tax or estate law affected my planning?
• Does my estate plan still coordinate with my retirement and financial plan?

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How often should I review my trust?

There is no universal requirement. As a practical planning approach, many individuals choose to review their trust and broader estate plan every few years and following significant changes in their financial or family circumstances. Your estate planning attorney can recommend an appropriate schedule for your situation.

 

Does reviewing my estate plan mean I need to change it?

No. A review may simply confirm that your existing documents, beneficiaries, asset ownership, and selected fiduciaries remain appropriate.

 

Should I review my estate plan when I retire?

Retirement can be a useful time for an estate plan review because income sources, wealth, family circumstances, property ownership, and long-term goals may have changed since the plan was originally created.

 

Do beneficiary designations override my trust or will?

Certain assets transfer according to their own beneficiary designations rather than instructions in a will. Retirement plans and IRAs, for example, generally follow the beneficiary designations established under the account or plan procedures. How a particular trust interacts with beneficiary-designated assets can be complex and should be reviewed with qualified legal and tax professionals.

 

Who should be involved in reviewing an estate plan?

Depending on the circumstances, the process may involve an estate planning attorney, financial advisor, CPA or other tax professional, and insurance professionals. Each provides different expertise, and coordination can help ensure the various pieces of the plan work together.

 

Key Takeaway

 

You don't necessarily need to change your trust and estate plan every few years.

 

You should make sure it still works.

 

A periodic review, combined with additional reviews following meaningful life changes, can help identify outdated beneficiaries, trustees, asset ownership, instructions, or planning strategies before they become problems.

 

Your estate plan was created to reflect your wishes.

 

The purpose of reviewing it is to make sure it still does.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Retirement is rarely static. Your wealth changes, your family evolves, your priorities shift, and eventually the way you think about legacy may change as well.

 

Your estate plan should be able to evolve with you.

 

At Cypress Wealth Services, we believe estate planning should be integrated into the broader retirement planning process. While estate planning attorneys provide the legal guidance and prepare the appropriate documents, your investment strategy, retirement accounts, beneficiary designations, insurance, tax planning, and estate plan should be considered together.

 

You spent decades building your financial life. Periodically reviewing how that wealth would be managed if you became incapacitated—and how it would eventually pass to the people and causes you care about—is an important part of retiring with greater confidence and clarity.

 

About the Author

 

Ross Biesinger is a Partner and Senior Financial Advisor with Cypress Wealth Services. Ross works closely with individuals and families to develop comprehensive retirement strategies that integrate investment management, retirement income planning, tax-efficient wealth strategies, estate planning considerations, and long-term financial planning. His approach focuses on helping clients understand how the different pieces of their financial lives work together and make thoughtful decisions as their goals and circumstances evolve.

 

 

Retire With Confidence and Clarity is an educational series focused on helping individuals and families navigate retirement planning decisions with greater understanding and purpose.

 

Cypress Wealth Services does not provide legal advice or prepare estate planning documents. Trusts, wills, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and other estate planning strategies involve legal and tax considerations that vary based on individual circumstances and applicable law. Individuals should consult qualified estate planning attorneys, tax professionals, and financial professionals regarding their specific circumstances.