One of my traditions is to make New Year’s resolutions. I always resolve to eat better and exercise more. Some years I keep that resolution better than others. Then I pick one thing that I put on my must-do-this-year, no-excuses list, and two things on my must-do list. I write the first one in bold and put the list of all three in front of me on my desk. Then I get to work on the first workday after New Year’s and start on the first thing. I set up appointments or start finding out what I need to do and who I need to contact to complete the task.
Believe it or not, for two different years, the first thing on my list was to update MY estate plan. The first year, my goal was to update the plan my husband and I had done. I had prepared our plan when our children were very young. I made sure we had our trust in place so that the money we left behind could be managed for them, and I bought life insurance so that there would be money for college if anything happened to both of us. I also made sure that we had guardians named. When I put updating my trust at the top of my list, my children were grown, and the update was long overdue.
The second time I put it on my list was the year after my husband died. I had taken care of everything when he passed, but our trust was still the one from when he was alive. I needed to update all of my documents to reflect that change.
If your family has changed—grown up, passed away, married, divorced, had children—since you did your trust, give me a call.
