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Decade
If 10 years have passed since you executed your estate plan, it may be time to talk to your lawyer. Over the course of 10 years, laws can change, relationships can change, and people get older. Perfect planning 10 years ago may be an imperfect plan today. If your estate plan is more than 10 years old, that doesn’t guarantee it needs to be updated, however, feel free to give us a call to discuss whether your plan needs to be updated.
Divorce
If you or anyone named in your estate plan gets divorced, give us a call. For the most part, a beneficiary or fiduciary getting divorced has no major impact on an estate plan. However, if you get divorced and your ex-spouse is listed in your estate plan, you should call us right away. By operation of Nebraska law, beneficiary designations and POA’s listing a spouse are void upon divorce. That might be sufficient to prevent your assets from passing to your ex-spouse. However, your documents will need to be updated to reflect who you want to make decisions for you.
Death
If anyone named in your estate plan dies, let’s discuss. Some deaths are more critical to your estate plan than others. One of your beneficiaries dying may only have a minor impact and most plans contemplate the death of a beneficiary. However, if the personal representative named in your Will or your listed power of attorney dies, your plan should be updated.
Diagnosis
If you or anyone named in your estate plan is diagnosed with a terminal illness, then it’s time to review. If you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, it may make sense to do some gifting now, or you may need to sell some property listed in your plan to pay for your medical care. For a beneficiary diagnosed with a terminal illness, we may want to discuss removing them from fiduciary roles and added protections to protect their potential inheritance from medical debts.
Always remember the 4 D’s of estate planning. If any of the 4 D’s applies to your estate plan, give us a call at (402) 858-0996.