9 Reasons to Revise your Estate Plan

How often should you revise your estate plan? What are the signs that indicate a revision must be undertaken immediately? These questions will be answered here by the best estate planning attorney in Grand Rapids, MI.

An estate plan is probably the most prominent aspect of your legacy. In many ways, your estate plan is a reflection of the love you hold for the people that you’ll eventually leave behind. It serves as a testament to your final wish. Of course, estate planning is important. However, once created, it is also important to update it regularly based on key events in your life.

With this article, we would like to shed light on 9 such events or reasons that serve as a signal that you should immediately revise your estate plan.

So without much further ado, here are 9 reasons to revise your estate plan as recommended by our attorney of estate planning in Grand Rapids, MI.

1. Birth of a New Child

The birth of a new child is a joyous occasion. This is also a good time to revise your will to make sure they are provided for after you have passed away. You can create a plan that names the child’s guardian if you die when the child is still a minor. If you do not assign a guardian, then the court will appoint one. There are many good reasons why it isn’t a wise idea to leave this important decision up to the court. So it is in your best interest to update an estate plan in the event you have a new child.

2. Death of a Spouse

Being home to the best Grand Rapids estate attorney, we are often visited by clients to update their wills when their spouses die. This is understandable when you consider the fact that most married couples leave most or all of their assets to each other. You’ll need to revise the will if you’ve inherited your spouse’s retirement account and wish it to be rolled over into your existing account. You can also hire an estate planning attorney to create a new power of attorney.

3. You Got Married

New marriages warrant estate plan revisions for them to be effective. A new marriage can seriously affect the conditions laid down in your existing plan. You’ll need to update your will to ensure your newlywed spouse is covered in the will or to add new provisions because of your changed circumstances. Simply put, it would be a wise decision to get in touch with the best estate planning lawyer you know to help you update your plan.

4. You Got Divorced

An estate planning attorney becomes just as important when you’re getting divorced. A sudden divorce can significantly influence your current estate plan. So it would be a good idea to revise the plan to make the necessary adjustments, considering your current situation.

5. Saving Heirs from Financial Ruin

The attorney at The Law Offices of Sean Patrick Cox who specialize in estate planning in Grand Rapids, MI entertains a lot of requests for estate plan revisions because of these reasons. No parent can sit behind and watch their child go through financial hardships or bankruptcy. So a quick revision of your will could work as a solution to pull an heir out of the financial trouble they’ve found themselves in.

6. Buying New Assets

Our Grand Rapids estate planning attorney recommends immediately revising an estate plan to account for new assets purchased. After all, an estate plan is conjured after taking into account the assets one currently owns. So we suggest consulting your estate planning lawyer quickly if your asset portfolio has changed due to a new acquisition.

7. Starting a New Business

Your estate plan will obviously include a contingency plan that dictates what happens to your business once you’ve passed away. So it only becomes imperative to revise a plan if you’ve ventured into a new business.

8. Changes in Law

Regulations can be volatile. The laws that bind you today may change tomorrow. So it would be in your best interest to check in with your estate planning attorney occasionally to make sure your estate plan is compliant with the state and federal laws in effect currently.

9. General Rule

Finally, our estate planning attorney in Grand Rapids, MI has always maintained that it is a good idea to revise an estate plan frequently even if you don’t see a good reason to do so. This way you can rest easy knowing there are no problems with the plan you currently hold.

For proper estate planning, we recommend you look no further than The Law Offices of Sean Patrick Cox for excellent legal representation from the best Grand Rapids Estate Planning attorney.