If you are like most people, then you probably finished your estate plan and then forgot about it. While some people make changes with every small life update, most do not focus on estate planning often enough.
According to Forbes, if you do not change your estate plan regularly, you could be making a mistake. There are a lot of life events that dictate how necessary it is to update your estate plan. There are two questions that you need to ask yourself.
Did your assets change?
Over time, your assets will change. When you started your estate plan, you may have had thousands of dollars in assets. Now, you may have hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions. When your assets change, you have to include the changes into your estate plan.
Did your family change?
As you age, your family ages too. You may have more children or grandchildren than you had when you first completed your estate plan. With more assets, you can do more to take care of your family. If you have grandchildren, you may want to leave inheritances specifically for them.
Additionally, what changes have your family members experienced? Say that you have a child who turned out to be frivolous with money and has a lot of debt. Do you want him or her to have access to the entire inheritance right away?
As you age, you should pay close attention to your estate plan. After all, you may have experienced a number of different life changes that could alter the estate plan.