FAQ Friday: Spring Cleaning Checklist

On Friday, March 24th, Attorney, Candice Joy discusses when you might need to update your estate planning.

Your plan should last you for a very long time, however sometimes changes occur in the law or in life that require a re-evaluation.

The two most important items to look at are if your agents are still accurate and if your beneficiaries are still accurate.

If those people moved away from where you feel comfortable with them being located to be in those positions, or if they are not interested in serving then that should be addressed.

For beneficiaries, have they passed or is the relationship still the same or have new potential beneficiaries been born?

Another item to address is whether your plan was put into place before the Maryland state exemption tax increased quite a bit.

Another important consideration is if your adult children’s marriages might not be very stable, you may want to add divorce protection or if those adult children have now given you grandchildren.

Or if at the time of your planning, you didn’t have specific assets such as crypto or a business, then planning for those is important.

Also be mindful of how IRA laws have changed in term of timelines for pulling those funds.

Think about whether or not anyone knows where your documents are and tell them so it doesn’t become a search along with account information for those that find it.

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