EP Reviews & Updates
Updates and Maintenance of Your Estate Plan
Change is the only guarantee you have in life, which is why we at Legacy APC believe estate planning is an ongoing process. Estate planning is pivotal during significant life events to protect your future and create financial security regardless of the uncertainties and surprises of life.
And while many people believe that simply having a will drawn up is enough, the reality is that estate planning is so much more. Estate planning is not a one-time event.
There are many times when you’ll want to update your estate plan, such as if you:
- Get married
- Make new relations
- Receive an inheritance
- Purchase property
- Have or adopt a child
- Become a parent or grandparent
- Lose a loved one
- Get divorced
- Become disabled
Your estate plan needs to be regularly revisited, revised, and updated to keep up with the changes in your own life, those of your family members, laws and legal strategy, and your own life goals. We recommend clients review their estate plan for needed updates at least every seven years, but sooner if a significant life event has occurred. Changes to an estate plan can be either large or small. Small changes, such as adding a beneficiary or replacing a successor trustee or agent, are called amendments. When many small changes need to be made or you want to change your estate planning strategy, we recommend what’s called a restatement. A restatement allows you to completely amend a trust or draft a new one completely.
Resiliency is built by creating buffers for the surprises the world sends your way. We are here to help you build that resiliency into your estate plan.
At Legacy APC, our motto is: "...until death do us part."
We build lifelong relationships with our clients and provide free review meetings so we can ensure their plans continue to work as intended.
If you’re an existing client, click here to access our client resources section or call (619) 696-0778 to schedule your FREE review meeting. New clients call (619) 696-0778 for your initial consultation.
Get Guidance from Legacy APC
- Do you have an estate plan (living trust or will) drafted by another attorney or a DIY legal website?
- Do you lack confidence in its effectiveness?
- Are you worried about whether it will work as you intend?
At Legacy APC, we have had many clients who came in with simple documents drafted by an attorney who was not experienced in estate planning. Some come to us with documents they created themselves on DIY legal websites, too.
We understand the inexpensive cost of these planning documents makes them attractive to seniors and their families. Unfortunately, being pennywise and pound-foolish could lead to many unforeseen problems with these subpar documents in the future.
These DIY or subpar estate planning documents are typically devoid of any planning strategy. Many leave everything outright to the person’s spouse and beneficiaries without any remarriage, divorce, creditor or probate protections. With these documents, you may be uncertain if your planning needs are being met or if the legal advice you received was accurate.
If you purchased a one-size-fits-all DIY package, you may think you have everything covered. After all, it’s easy to use fill-in-the-blank templates for both inexperienced attorneys and online document retailers. They may seem thorough, but we call them “bare bones” documents.
The problem with DIY options is that every family is unique, and a fill-in-the-blank template is going to leave big gaps between what you want to accomplish and what can actually be addressed without any custom tailoring.
When our team at Legacy APC reviews these kinds of documents, we often see a lack of critical protections and an increase in conflicting language that voids any intended benefits.
Additionally, we find that many people assume that all they need is a Last Will & Testament, but by following that logic they’re guaranteeing a date in probate court—a situation that is costly and completely preventable.
The above are just some of the issues we see with DIY estate planning documents. Some additional concerns are as follows:
Trusts with no funding of assets:
To work as designed, a Living Trust must be funded. This means a family's assets must be retitled to be in the name of the trust. Lack of funding is a ticket straight to the Probate Court, and any benefits of the trust are voided. Many DIY websites and inexperienced legal practitioners skip the critical funding step.
No Plan to Minimize and Control Taxes:
Income taxes, inheritance taxes, estate taxes, generation-skipping taxes, capital gains taxes, and others can be planned for within your estate plan. However, with so many different types of taxes that you could be exposed to, there must be careful, considerate planning for your family’s future. Consider this: in some cases, multiple tax exposures could significantly reduce the value of an estate and leave your beneficiaries with just a fraction of the inheritance you intended to leave behind. Most bare-bones documents offer no tax protection. Even if they happen to have it, the chances are the trust isn't funded!
No Distribution Control:
Many DIY and bare-bones templates leave inheritances outright to beneficiaries. This means the inheritance you leave behind for your beneficiaries could be lost due to divorce, remarriage, creditors and predators, lawsuits, financial inexperience, and other personal challenges.
No Probate Protection:
Either a Will-based plan or a Trust without funding guarantees time in probate court.
Finally, in some cases, these documents aren't even signed and notarized as legally mandated to make them valid.
Download our Estate Plan Review Checklist to determine when you need to schedule a review meeting
How the Trust Review Attorneys at Legacy APC Can Ensure Your Estate Plan Stays Up-to-Date Ensure Your Estate Plan Stays Up-to-Date
At Legacy APC, our team has drafted and reviewed thousands of estate plans for clients in California. If you have a Will, Trust, or other estate planning document and you’re not confident that it safeguards your future and that of your family, there is still time! Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Schedule your free consultation with our team of attorneys at Legacy APC. We’re here to guide you, so you can have peace of mind knowing what truly matters to you has been addressed. Call our office at (619) 696-0778 today to learn more.
