With December already here, you may well be in the midst of many holiday and other plans that relate to the end of yet another calendar year. Missouri residents can take advantage of the special nature of this time of year by setting aside time to review their estate plans. If your first thought upon hearing that is to question why you would do that, you should first think back on the past 12 months and consider what may have changed in your life over this time.
As Fidelity Investments indicates, any real change in your financial or familial relationship status should be reflected in your estate plan. Maybe you sold a home and bought and moved to a new home this year. Perhaps you changed jobs and received a sizeable salary and bonus increase. You may have become a grandparent for the first, second or subsequent time. Perhaps you or one of your adult children got married or divorced. All of these are events which would make reviewing and revising your will or trust appropriate.
Regardless of the scope of any change in your life, making an estate planning review a normal part of your year end events puts you in control of your assets and your choices. Even changes to the tax code or other laws may lead you to make different decisions about how you structure your plan.
This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to help educate people about the reasons for making an estate plan review part of their end-of-year or beginning-of-year rituals.