Why Reviewing Your Estate Plan Is Just as Important as Creating One
You signed your will. You set up your trust. You named your beneficiaries. You did the hard work, and you felt the relief that comes with knowing your affairs are in order. But here is the thing: estate planning is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that must keep pace with your life.
The documents you signed five years ago may no longer reflect your current family, your current finances, or current law. And if your estate plan does not accurately represent your wishes, it cannot protect the people you love.
At Kelleher + Holland, we have seen firsthand what happens when estate plans go unreviewed. A marriage overlooked. A new property unaccounted for. A beneficiary designation left unchanged after a divorce. What should have been a straightforward process for a grieving family becomes a painful, expensive scramble to correct documents that no longer tell the right story.
Reviewing your estate plan is not just a good habit. It is one of the most important things you can do for the people who depend on you.
Why Estate Plans Go Stale
Your life changes constantly. Your estate plan does not update itself to match. When you first drafted your plan, it was a snapshot of your life at that moment. Your assets, your family structure, your health, your wishes. Over time, each of those pieces shifts. Children are born. Marriages happen, and sometimes they end. Loved ones pass away. Businesses are built. Retirement approaches. Tax laws are rewritten.
An estate plan that was thoughtfully crafted a decade ago may now contain beneficiary designations for an ex-spouse, name a guardian who has since moved across the country, or rely on tax exemption thresholds that have changed dramatically under federal law. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act significantly elevated the federal estate tax exemption. If your plan was written with specific tax formulas in mind, it may be time to revisit whether those formulas still reflect your goals and the current legal landscape. The documents themselves do not expire. But their relevance to your life can.
Life Events That Should Trigger an Immediate Estate Plan Review
Some changes demand a prompt conversation with your estate planning attorney. If any of the following have occurred since you last reviewed your plan, it is time to schedule an estate plan review.
- Marriage or remarriage. A new marriage affects who inherits your assets, who holds your powers of attorney, and how existing beneficiary designations read. Without an update, your estate plan may unintentionally exclude a new spouse or conflict with your current intentions.
- Divorce. In Illinois, for example, divorce automatically revokes certain provisions in a will that benefit a former spouse, but it does not revoke all estate planning documents. Trusts, beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, and financial powers of attorney may still name your ex-partner and must be updated separately and deliberately.
- The birth or adoption of a child or grandchild. Welcoming a new family member is one of the most common reasons to update a will or trust. This is also the time to formally designate a guardian for minor children, a decision that should never be left to chance or assumption.
- The death of a beneficiary, executor, or trustee. If someone named in your documents has passed away, your plan may now have gaps or rely on default rules that do not match your wishes. A replacement should be named promptly.
- A significant change in assets. Buying or selling a home, inheriting money, starting a business, or receiving a large gift can all affect how your estate plan should be structured. Assets held outside a trust or with outdated titling can easily fall into probate, even when a trust exists.
- Moving to a new state. Estate planning laws vary by state. If you have relocated since executing your plan, or if you spend significant time in more than one state as many of our clients do, your documents should be reviewed for compliance and effectiveness under the laws of your current state.
- A change in your health or the health of a loved one. A new diagnosis may make your existing healthcare proxy or advance directive more urgent. If your named agent for healthcare or financial decisions is no longer able to serve, your documents must reflect that reality.
How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?
Even without a triggering life event, most estate planning attorneys recommend a formal review every three to five years. A lot can quietly change in that window. Tax laws shift. Your net worth grows. The people you named as trustees or agents age or move away. Financial institutions have evolved in how they treat powers of attorney, and an older document may face resistance when your family actually needs to use it.
We recommend scheduling a regular estate plan review the way you schedule an annual physical. You may not have a specific complaint, but a checkup gives you confidence that everything is functioning as intended and lets a professional flag anything that needs attention before it becomes a problem.
What a Thorough Estate Plan Review Actually Covers
A review is not simply re-reading your documents. It is a comprehensive look at whether your entire legal and financial picture still aligns with your goals. When we conduct an estate plan review at Kelleher + Holland, we look at the following:
- Your will and any trusts: Are the provisions still accurate? Do they reflect changes in your family structure, your assets, and your wishes?
- Beneficiary designations: Life insurance policies, retirement accounts, IRAs, and 401(k)s pass outside of a will entirely. If a designation is outdated, it overrides even a carefully written estate plan.
- Powers of attorney: Both your financial power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney should name individuals who are still willing, available, and capable of acting on your behalf.
- Asset titling: Property and accounts must be titled correctly to work in harmony with your trust or estate plan. An asset titled in your name alone may be subject to probate even when a trust exists.
- Guardianship designations: If your children are still minors, your guardian nominations should reflect your current wishes and the current circumstances of the people you have named.
- Tax planning strategies: With federal estate tax exemptions constantly evolving, your plan may need to be restructured to preserve maximum wealth for your heirs.
- Digital assets: Cryptocurrency, online accounts, and digital files are increasingly valuable and increasingly overlooked. A modern estate plan should address how these assets are accessed and transferred.
The Cost of Waiting
People delay estate plan reviews for the same reason they delay creating an estate plan in the first place: the process feels complicated, the topic feels uncomfortable, and nothing urgent is forcing the issue. But inaction is its own risk.
We have worked with families who discovered, only after a loved one’s passing, that beneficiary designations had never been updated after a divorce. Retirement accounts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars passed to a former spouse. A trust that was never funded left an estate subject to a lengthy, public probate process. A child born after the original documents were signed was not explicitly included and had to rely on default inheritance rules. None of these outcomes were intentional, and all of them could have been avoided with a timely review.
Our Approach: Estate Planning as a Living Process
At Kelleher + Holland, we believe an estate plan should evolve as your life does. We do not view signing documents as the finish line. We view it as the beginning of an ongoing relationship. Our team proactively reaches out to clients when major legal changes occur, and we are always available when life brings changes that warrant a fresh look at your plan.
Whether your original plan was drafted by our team or by another firm, we are happy to conduct a thorough estate plan review and provide clear, straightforward guidance on what, if anything, needs to be updated. We serve clients throughout multiple states, including many who split time between more than one state and need a team that understands the nuances of multi-state planning.
Your life has changed since you last signed your estate planning documents. Let us make sure your plan has kept up. Schedule a consultation with our estate planning team today by completing the form at the bottom of the page.
To learn more about Kelleher + Holland’s estate planning services or about our estate planning attorneys in Illinois and Naples, please visit our Estate Planning page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How often should I review my estate plan?
A: Most estate planning attorneys recommend reviewing your estate plan every three to five years, even if no major life events have occurred. You should also schedule a review promptly after any significant change, including marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, the death of a named beneficiary or agent, a major shift in assets, or a move to a new state.
Q: Does my estate plan expire?
A: Your estate planning documents do not have a formal expiration date, but they can become outdated. Changes in your family, finances, and the law can all render an existing plan ineffective or misaligned with your current wishes. A plan that no longer reflects your life can create serious problems for your family.
Q: What happens if I do not update my estate plan after a major life change?
A: If your estate plan is not updated, your assets may pass to unintended beneficiaries, outdated individuals may retain decision-making authority over your finances or healthcare, and your family may face unnecessary delays, costs, and disputes. In Illinois, for example, certain provisions in a will are automatically revoked upon divorce, but many other documents, including trusts and beneficiary designations, must be manually updated.
Q: Can I just update my will without reviewing my other documents?
A: We strongly recommend reviewing all estate planning documents together, not just your will. Beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts, powers of attorney, and trust documents all work together as a system. Updating one without reviewing the others can create conflicts or gaps that undermine your overall plan.
Q: What if my estate plan was drafted by a different attorney?
A: We regularly review estate plans that were drafted by other firms. Our team will assess your existing documents, identify any gaps or outdated provisions, and recommend updates where appropriate. You do not need to have been an existing Kelleher + Holland client to schedule an estate plan review.
Q: I signed my estate plan recently. Do I still need to review it?
A: If your plan is current and your life circumstances have not changed significantly, a formal review may not be urgent. However, we recommend maintaining a regular review cadence regardless of when documents were executed.
—
Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contact our team for guidance specific to your situation.