Wills
Before August Ends, Pull Out Your Will and Check These Things
You made a will. You signed it, put it somewhere safe, and probably haven’t thought much about it since.
This August, go find it.
August is National Make a Will Month, and while much of the attention goes to people who haven’t made a will yet, having one doesn’t mean you’re finished. The document sitting in your safe, filing cabinet, or desk drawer reflects your life when you signed it.
Your life may look very different today.
Before August ends, pull out your will and check these nine things. You may discover that everything still says exactly what you want. Or you may find a former spouse, an outdated executor, property you no longer own, or instructions you would never choose today.
1. Check Who Your Will Leaves Your Property To
Start with the most basic question: Who gets what?
Read the names of the people and organizations included in your will. Then consider what has happened in your life since you chose them.
Maybe you got married. Perhaps you remarried and now have a blended family. Your children may have been very young when you wrote the will and are now adults with families of their own. Someone you once planned to provide for may no longer be part of your life.
Marriage is one of the life events that can warrant an estate plan review because an older will and beneficiary designations may no longer reflect what you want for your spouse and family.
Do not assume everyone you care about will automatically receive what you intended. Look at the names actually written in the document and ask whether you would make the same choices today.
2. Check Whether Your Ex Is Still Named Anywhere
If you have divorced since making your will, look for your former spouse’s name.
Do they appear as a beneficiary? Executor? Trustee? Are they mentioned elsewhere in the document?
Then expand the search beyond your will. Your former spouse may also appear in a trust, power of attorney, advance medical directive, life insurance policy, retirement account, or other beneficiary designation.
Divorce can affect estate planning documents and beneficiary rights differently depending on the state and type of asset involved. Estate planning professionals have long recommended reviewing wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, and jointly held property as part of the divorce process.
The safest approach is to decide who you want in each role today rather than assuming divorce automatically took care of everything.
3. Check Whether Everyone in Your Family Is Accounted For
Look at when you signed your will and compare your family then with your family now.
Have you had another child? Adopted? Become a grandparent? Has one of your children gotten married? Does your family now include stepchildren or other people you want to provide for?
If you have minor children, review your choice of guardian. The person who seemed right five or ten years ago may no longer be the person you would choose today.
You should also look at how children and grandchildren would receive an inheritance. Giving property directly to an adult beneficiary is very different from planning for a minor child or someone who may need additional financial protection.
4. Check Who You Chose to Handle Your Estate
Find the section naming your executor or personal representative.
Would you still choose that person today?
They may have moved across the country, developed health problems, become overwhelmed with responsibilities of their own, or simply drifted out of your life. The person you chose at 35 may not be the person you would choose at 55.
Check your backup choice too.
The person handling your estate may be responsible for gathering assets, dealing with creditors and expenses, handling court requirements, and ultimately distributing property according to your will. You want someone you still trust who is willing and able to take on that responsibility.
5. Check Whether the Property Mentioned in Your Will Still Exists
Now look for specific property.
Does your will leave someone a house you sold six years ago? A business interest you no longer own? An investment or other asset that has changed substantially?
Your estate may have changed considerably since the document was signed. You may have purchased a home, inherited property, acquired investments, sold major assets, or started a business. The purchase of real property and other significant financial events can have estate planning consequences worth reviewing.
Business owners should pay particular attention here. Your estate planning review may need to extend beyond the will to succession plans, ownership agreements, insurance, and instructions for what happens to your interest in the company.
6. Check Whether the Way You Divided Everything Still Makes Sense
Maybe your will says everything goes equally to your three children.
That may still be exactly what you want.
But consider what has happened since you made that decision. Perhaps you helped one child buy a home. One child now works in the family business while the others do not. Your estate includes real estate that cannot simply be divided into thirds. A beneficiary may have circumstances that make receiving a large inheritance outright a concern.
Your own finances may have changed too. Retirement accounts may be significantly larger, you may own more property, or the overall value and composition of your estate may bear little resemblance to what you owned when the plan was created.
Read the distribution provisions as though you were making the decision for the first time today.
Would you still divide everything the same way?
If the answer is no, your will may have fallen behind your life.
7. Check Whether You’ve Moved Since You Signed It
If the address on your will belongs to a house you haven’t lived in for years, add an estate plan review to your list.
Estate planning and probate laws vary by state. A move can raise questions involving wills, powers of attorney, advance medical directives, property ownership, and other parts of your plan.
Moving does not necessarily mean every document you signed before the move is suddenly invalid. It does mean you should have your existing plan reviewed under the laws of the state where you now live.
This is especially worth considering if your move also involved buying or selling real estate or changing how property is titled.
8. Check the Beneficiaries Your Will Doesn’t Control
This is one of the easiest estate planning issues to overlook.
Your will may say exactly what you want and still fail to control some of your most valuable assets.
Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain financial accounts can pass according to beneficiary designations rather than the instructions in your will. Other property may pass based on how it is titled or owned. The Florida Bar, for example, specifically identifies beneficiary designations and jointly owned assets as important considerations when reviewing an estate plan.
Pull up the beneficiary designations for your major accounts and policies.
Who is listed as the primary beneficiary? Who is the backup? Were those choices made before a marriage, divorce, birth, death, or another major change?
Do not assume changing your will changed those forms too.
9. Check What Your Will Says About Your Digital Life
Think about how much more of your life exists online than it did five or ten years ago.
You may now have online banking, cloud storage, social media accounts, digital photographs, cryptocurrency, subscription services, monetized content, an online business, or other digital property your family may need to locate or manage.
Some of those assets may have financial value. Others may have enormous personal value.
Make an inventory of important digital assets and accounts so the appropriate person knows they exist. An estate planning attorney can also discuss how you want digital property handled and how to plan for appropriate access without placing sensitive passwords directly in your will.
Done With Your Will? Now Check the Documents That Go With It
Once you finish reading your will, keep going.
Depending on your estate plan, you may also have:
- A durable power of attorney
- An advance medical directive
- One or more trusts
- Beneficiary designations
- Guardianship nominations
- Business succession documents
- Instructions involving digital assets
- Documents addressing how property is owned or transferred
Look at the names in those documents too.
The person you want administering your estate after your death is not necessarily the same person currently authorized to handle your finances if you become incapacitated. Updating your will also does not automatically update a beneficiary designation on a retirement account or life insurance policy.
The goal is for these pieces to reflect the same plan rather than decisions you made during different chapters of your life.
Before You Put Your Will Away Again
If you pulled out your will because of National Make a Will Month and everything still looks exactly right, great. You now know that because you actually checked.
If you found your ex’s name, an executor you haven’t spoken to in years, property you no longer own, an outdated guardian choice, or beneficiaries you would choose differently today, do something about it before the document disappears back into the drawer for another five years.
And if you cannot remember where your will is at all, August may have already told you something worth addressing.
The estate planning attorneys at Melone Hatley, P.C. can review your existing will and the documents that work alongside it, identify areas that may need updating, and make sure your estate plan reflects the life and family you have today. We Protect Your Family, Your Finances, & Your Future.®
