Spring cleaning is not just for deep cleaning your house. It’s time to go over your financials, plan projects for the year, and update your estate plan. Before you make an appointment with your Georgia estate planning attorney, you’ll need to make a list of all the significant changes you had in the past year.
Life Events
If you have changes in your life due to life events, you need to provide for them in your estate plan. Events that should trigger a change include:
- Having a baby or adopting a baby or child.
- When your child or grandchildren become adults.
- If a child needs educational funding.
- Caring for an adult or other changes to the number of dependents you have.
- Marriage.
- Divorce.
- Separation.
- Your spouse becomes disabled or ill.
- The death of a guardian you named for your minor children.
- Change in a life insurance policy or long-term care insurance.
- The purchase of life insurance.
- You started a business.
- You bought a home or sold a home – or both.
- You or your spouse’s financial goals changed.
- Large increases in the value of your estate, such as those from investments.
- State or federal tax laws changed.
- You or your spouse received an inheritance or gift.
- Those you named as the executor of your estate and / or trustees died.
- A family member named in your will or the beneficiary or trustee of a trust died.
- A family member who is a beneficiary dies.
Things to Check Every Year
Every year, add checking the agents named in your estate planning documents (Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, etc.) and the beneficiaries you have named on your estate plan, retirement accounts, bank accounts, and other financial accounts that might pass directly to a beneficiary at death, to your spring cleaning list.
Contact a Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
When it’s time to review your estate plan, contact our Georgia estate planning attorneys at Grissom Law, LLC to help you review your estate plan and, if necessary, make changes to beneficiaries and agents.
Disclaimer
This Blog/Web Site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of the law, not to provide legal advice. By using this blog site you understand that there is no attorney-client relationship between you and Grissom Law, LLC.