While you are living, essentially your estate plan is living too. And just as your life is evolving, your estate plan should change accordingly. Unfortunately, Congress and the White House are constantly shifting. As a result, your estate plan must adapt, improvise and overcome. For wealthy families in particular, many of their estate plans are simply out of date, and that’s not something you can afford to let slide. According to a Private Wealth article titled, “Estate Plans Of Rich Families Out Of Date, Survey Says,” and a study conducted by Rothstein Krass, “More than three quarters of the estate plans of the ultra-wealthy clients studied were at least three years old despite the fact that nearly 95% of them have experienced significant life changes since the estate plans were drawn up.” However you spin that finding, it’s a sad state of affairs for many families, and your family need not become part of that sad statistic. Simply put, if your life (or the lives of your loved ones) changes, for better or worse, you need to adjust your estate planning accordingly. The past few years have been devastating to families building wealth between generations and to families working hard to build wealth in this generation. As a result, just about every family needs to make some adjustments in its estate planning. Maybe now is a good time to schedule a review with your estate planning attorney.
Reference: Private Wealth (September 25, 2012) “Estate Plans Of Rich Families Out Of Date, Survey Says”
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