Making an estate plan requires you to think about the future. Yet it’s a future that will be based upon your present. As your present changes, which it inevitably will, you’ll need to update your estate plan as your future may now be different
Here are some significant changes that could require you to revise your plan.
Changes to your marital situation
A plan you made when single needs updating when you marry. Your spouse will automatically gain a right to some of your estate when you die, unless you preclude this through a pre or post nuptial agreement. Some of your estate will likely become partly your spouses estate anyway, as marriage combines many of a couple’s possessions. So if your previous estate plan left everything to your niece, you’d need to amend it to avoid confusion over who gets particular assets – your niece or your new spouse.
Divorce will separate your estate from your spouse’s so that would again require a revision. You’ll likely also emerge from a divorce with fewer assets, so you’d need to remove any assets you no longer own from your estate plan as they won’t be yours to pass on.
Births and deaths
If you have children, you’d likely want to add them into your estate plan. As with a spouse, they’d also have an automatic right to something anyway.
If an intended beneficiary dies, you’d need to remove them and redistribute assets that were destined for them. If someone you named for a role such as executor or guardian dies, you’d need to replace them.
Law related to estate planning can also change so it’s worth checking in with your legal team every so often even if you can see no pressing need to update your plan. That way you can make sure your estate plan is still ideal for your current situation.