Completing your estate plan is a great first step towards securing peace of mind for your family’s future. It is, however, only a first step. Just because you’ve met with your estate planning attorney and completed your will or established your trust doesn’t mean that your life is protected for the rest of time. Planning for the future means updating your estate plan when significant changes in your life occur and it also means taking ongoing steps to protect your estate and ensure that everything remains in order. Only by devoting regular attention to your personal financial planning can you rest easy knowing you’ve prepared for your family’s future with intention.
What to Do Once You’ve Completed Your Estate Plan
Here are a few important steps you can take when planning for your future to ensure that your estate plan remains up-to-date and protected:
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- Make Sure Your Documents are Safely Stored. Your personal financial planning is only as good as the documents on which your estate plan is written. Therefore, it’s essential to protect them. There are several options for storing your will and other important papers, including a safe deposit box, a safe in your house, or with your attorney. It is probably best not to store your will in a safe deposit box, however, since the bank may freeze the contents of the box when you die.
- Review and Update Your Plan Regularly. In order to be sure that your estate plan is up-to-date you should review it regularly, at least every three to five years, if not more frequently. Whenever you experience a major life event such as the birth of a new child or grandchild, you should update your estate plan as soon as possible.
- Coordinate Your Estate Plan. Once you’ve established the basics of your estate plan, there are generally further steps you’ll need to take to make sure that all aspects of the plan are coordinated. Some of these steps include establishing beneficiary designations to ensure that assets such as life insurance and retirement accounts reach their intended beneficiaries and delivering power of attorney to your financial institutions.
- Communicate Regularly with Your Family and Other Beneficiaries. Planning for the future means making sure that everyone in your family is on the same page. It is imperative to regularly communicate with all your beneficiaries to be sure that they understand their role in your estate plan. This is especially important if their role should change when you update your plan. You don’t want any surprises or nasty squabbles when it comes time to execute your estate.
Hiring an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney
Maintaining your estate plan and planning for your future can be an involved process that requires constant vigilance on your part. Working with an experienced and reliable estate planning attorney can make this process much easier and help ensure that your family is properly protected once you pass on.
At the Deliberato Law Center, we have years of experience helping clients establish and maintain their estate plans. Contact us today at (216) 341-3413 or using the contact form below.
Contact the Estate Planning Attorneys at Deliberato Law Center
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