Keep Your Documents Up-To-Date

You have a will, a health care proxy, and a durable power of attorney. But you signed the documents five years ago. In the meantime, you had 2 children and your mother died (she was your back-up health care representative), leaving you $1 million dollars. You haven’t looked at your estate planning documents since you signed them. Will your documents carry out your current wishes?

Probably not. You cannot disinherit a spouse but you can definitely disinherit your children, even if you didn’t mean to. If you do not have any bequests to any children, then none of your children will inherit. If you left money to one child and now you have more than one child, you’ve probably disinherited all later-born or other children.

If you had a simple will that left everything to your spouse and you have assets of more than $675,000, if you both die together, your estate will be paying New Jersey estate taxes. And that will cost your children a chunk of change from their inheritance.

You and your spouse are in a car accident and both of you are unconscious. Your health care directive (assuming someone knows that it exists) named your spouse as your proxy, with your mother as the back-up. Do you have someone to make health care decisions for you? No, you do not.

Lives change so your estate planning must change. How often should you do estate planning? I’m cautious – I’d recommend checking your documents once a year. If you think that is too often, every 3 years is advisable. You should also consult your lawyer if you’ve had a major life event – marriage, birth of a child, or death of anyone named in any of your estate planning documents.

 You have a will, a health care proxy, and a durable power of attorney. But you signed the documents five years ago. In the meantime, you had 2 children and your mother died (she was your back-up health care representative), leaving you her $1 million dollar estate. You haven’t looked at your estate planning documents since you signed them. Will those documents carry out your current wishes?

Probably not. You cannot disinherit a spouse but you can definitely disinherit your children, even if you didn’t mean to. If you do not have any bequests to any children, then none of your children will inherit. If you left money to one child and now you have more than one child, you’ve probably disinherited all later-born or other children.

If you had a simple will that left everything to your spouse and you have assets of more than $675,000, if you both die together, your estate will be paying New Jersey estate taxes. And that will cost your children a chunk of change from their inheritance.

You and your spouse are in a car accident and both of you are unconscious. Your health care directive (assuming someone knows that it exists) named your spouse as your proxy, with your mother as the back-up. Do you have someone to make health care decisions for you? No, you do not.

Lives change so your estate planning must change. How often should you do estate planning? I’m cautious – I’d recommend checking your documents once a year. If you think that is too often, every 3 years is advisable. You should also consult your lawyer if you’ve had a major life event – marriage, birth of a child, or death of anyone named in any of your estate planning documents.

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