Our online self-assessment tool can help you recognize how the passage of time and any number of triggering events can impact your will, trust, and other planning documents.

In a perfect world, you could create an estate plan and be done with it, putting it on the shelf and then waiting for it to do its thing.




But, alas, even in a perfect world, circumstances change – and it is that rascally “change” that makes periodic reviews of your will, trust and other



estate planning



documents such a good idea.





To help you evaluate the condition of your will or trust, we’ve provided a



self-assessment tool – “How Current Is My Estate Plan?”



– that you can use to ascertain the need for a plan review.




If you check enough boxes to warrant a review with Ron Adams or Ryan Scharber, just click “Contact Me,” and we will schedule your meeting.



TRIGGERING EVENTS



The Tax Laws Have Changed (or Changed Their Impact on You).



Estate plans can be affected by at least four types of tax: gift tax, estate tax, inheritance tax, generation-skipping tax, and income tax (including capital gains). Whether the tax laws have changed, or existing tax provisions affect you differently than before, the impact on your estate plan could be significant.




Your Ship Is Coming In.



If you anticipate a big investment pay-off, the purchase or sale of a business, a sharp increase in business profits and/or value, a generous inheritance, or winning the Powerball, think about redirecting some of your impending fortune to kids, grandkids, charities, etc.




Your Ship Came In.



Ditto if the value of your estate has significantly increased since you created your plan.




Your Ship Sailed.



Fluctuations in the stock market and real estate might make your estate look a lot different now than a few years ago. You may be able to take advantage of depressed asset values and still-low (by historical standards) interest rates in making lifetime transfers, whether through gifts or intra-family transactions.




You’ve Become Self-Employed.



If you have transitioned from employment to business ownership, planning for succession, asset protection, and other concerns are important issues that didn’t matter until now.




Your Marital Status Changed.



Marriage, divorce, separation, or the death of a spouse has a huge impact on the effectiveness of your will or living trust and on your wishes for how and to whom your assets are to be distributed. Also affected are retirement assets, life insurance and jointly titled bank accounts, brokerage accounts and real estate.





You’ve Become a Parent.



For many people, this is the first occasion for doing an estate plan. Most importantly, be sure you name a guardian for your children and provide for them financially in case something happens to you.




Your Child Has Become an Adult (at Least Chronologically).



You might have made planning decisions regarding your children, when they were still in diapers, that warrant revisiting. Do they have opportunities, limitations or needs now that you didn’t anticipate then? Does the way they live their life create legal exposure for you?



Your Kids Have Become Parents.



It has been said that grandkids are God’s reward for having children, and you may respond by considering, for the first time, what “generation skipping” really means, and planning initiatives such as trusts for your grandkids’ education, special needs, etc.




You’ve Retired … or Are Thinking About It.



For most people, retirement brings a change in income, or income from a different source. Those changes can impact your estate plan.





You’re Getting Older (Part 1).



If you’re older now than when you created your plan (very probable), preparing for long-term care, health challenges and other costs of being human may be more of a priority.




You’re Getting Older (Part 2).



Even if you’re fit as a fiddle and plan to live forever, Uncle Sam is eyeing your retirement accounts. If you’re approaching or at the point of taking required distributions from your IRA, 401(k) or other qualified plan, that can affect your other planning.



An Heir or Beneficiary Has Passed Away.



If someone you named in your will or trust has died, make sure that your documents’ instructions adequately describe who gets what in the absence of the deceased heir or beneficiary.




Your Intended Trustee or PR Is No Longer a Good Candidate.



A change in the circumstances of a person you have named as a personal representative, trustee, guardian, etc., is a common stimulus of amending your planning documents. Perhaps they have passed away, have become ill or infirm, or are not the person you thought they were when you selected them.




You’ve Taken Up a Cause.



You would like to provide for a charity, religious organization, or other worthy cause that wasn’t on your radar screen when you set up your estate plan.





You Moved from Another State.



Arizona’s tax, trust, community property and inheritance laws may be just different enough from the laws of your former state to cause a problem with your will or trust. (


See related article.


)




As we mentioned above, you can use



our self-assessment tool



to check the box of each estate planning variable that applies and to initiate a plan review with



Ron Adams



or



Ryan Scharber


.