The conversation isn’t fast or fun. But, waiting until it is too late or not keeping an up-to-date estate plan will likely cause more pain later.
No one wants to think about that inevitable day, whether it’s when you or someone you love will pass away. Even in the best of circumstances, emotions like fear and sadness can seem overwhelming.
This, in turn, then causes people to put off estate planning, often until it is too late.
Forbes recently published an interesting article titled “Don’t Let Emotions Sabotage Your Estate Plan.” The main gist of the article is that people often get emotional about issues surrounding death and end of life planning.
As the title of the article counsels this response is best avoided.
It is necessary to set aside any emotions or unease surrounding death so that you can adequately plan for your estate. As the article suggests, it often takes six months to two years to formulate a complete estate plan, depending on the size of the anticipated estate.
Accordingly, if you have a large estate, you cannot wait until you are near death to make plans.
Another piece of solid advice in the article is that you should revisit your estate plan every three years.
That does not mean that you have to go through the entire process again. It just means that you should sit down with your estate planning attorney and go over everything.
Make sure that no laws have changed that might affect your estate. Make sure that beneficiaries, trustees and executors are still appropriate.
In other words, every three years you should make sure that the estate plan still does what you want it to do. Doing that periodically will possibly save a lot of trouble for your estate.
Why not contact your estate planning attorney and schedule a full review if you are due?
Reference: Forbes (May 15, 2015) “Don’t Let Emotions Sabotage Your Estate Plan.”
