The Antique
A lot of people believe that a Living Trust estate plan is a one-shot or “one-and-done” deal. Many think you can just park your Living Trust vehicle in the garage, never give it a check-up or tune-up, then someday when your successor Trustee must hop behind the steering wheel in an emergency - - when you (or your spouse) become disabled or dies - - it will start right up and run properly. Sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it?
Like all sophisticated technologies, such as computers, mobile phones, and cars, your Living Trust vehicle requires periodic updates and maintenance. Generally, if your Trust is over 7 years old, it likely needs some fine-tuning.
If you are a client of ours, we recently mailed you a notice of our new Amendment Package at a limited-time discounted price. We highly recommend this Amendment to all our clients.
However, you may feel that the Living Trust and other estate plan documents you signed years ago are just fine as is. You may believe they still reflect your wishes or that nothing significant has changed which requires any revision to be made.
Unfortunately, we’ve found that most estate plans do eventually become an out-of-date “antique” and wind up not working properly when you or your spouse becomes disabled or passes away.
Maybe a Free Checkup Is All You Need
Here are a few reasons why you should consider coming in to see us and reviewing your estate plan:
- Some of the people you’ve named to handle your health decisions or financial matters (when you’re disabled or gone), have moved away, died or demonstrated they’re not as responsible as you originally thought - - or your family’s relationship with them has changed.
- The needs, circumstances, and demonstrated abilities of your beneficiaries to handle money have changed.
- You are concerned about protecting your beneficiaries’ inheritance from their spouses, divorces, lawsuits, and creditors. (Even if your beneficiaries may be capable of handling money, others may try and grab it away from them. Whether you’re a client of ours or not, you should have the latest version of our Personal Asset Trust to help shield your loved ones’ inheritance.)
- You wish to avoid your assets and personal affairs from winding up in Court, causing you and your loved one’s unwanted unnecessary expenses, delays and publicity when you become disabled or pass away. (Are all the titles to your assets, including accounts with named beneficiaries, properly up-to-date?)
The fact is an old and out-of-date estate plan may actually be worse than none at all!
No More Procrastination!
Take care of getting a properly documented estate plan in place, before you or your spouse becomes too ill or incapacitated to do so, or passes away. No one has the guarantee that you’ll have another chance in the future.
If you’re a client of ours and you haven’t been in for a free checkup meeting within the last 3 years, or you haven’t yet added the important recent amendment, please call us and set up an attorney meeting right away! If you’ve got an estate plan from somewhere else, you can also take advantage of a free attorney review meeting with us.*
And if you have no estate plan at all, maybe it’s finally time you should! First, attend one of our free seminars to find out what’s involved (and also qualify for a special fee discount!). Then, if you like what you hear, schedule a free attorney meeting.
And help others you know and care about by forwarding this article to them, whether they have a Living Trust already or not!
Enjoy the peace of mind of knowing you and your loved ones are properly protected. Then, you can truly experience a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year!
*NOTE: If you are currently represented by other legal counsel, kindly disregard our meeting offer and see your counsel.
