An Estate Checkup?

An Estate Checkup?

Many people look at estate planning as a “one and done” item on their checklist. However, keeping a solid estate plan, especially one with a revocable living trust as the base of the plan, requires an annual check-in just to be sure the plan is up to date. More importantly, we need to make sure that all of the assets line up with the overall estate planning.

Recently, some clients that started with us many years ago ended up passing on. I met with both mom and dad about five years before about some changes that they were conflicted on, so they didn’t end up making any of those changes. In addition, and this is the important thing, dad refused to disclose or discuss their accounts and assets. I told them both that it had been more than 15 years since they came in, a lot has probably changed in their financial situation, and I can’t give them any advice on titling their assets or changing beneficiaries if I didn’t know what they had. Mom wanted to tell me, but dad shut that down right away.

Four years later, mom had passed on, so dad made all of the changes he wanted with the trust and other documents. However, he once again refused to disclose or discuss any of his accounts and assets, telling me it was all taken care of. After he passed on, I had a Zoom meeting with the daughter/trustee and several people with dad’s financial advisor’s office. The daughter was extremely upset that some of dad’s accounts went directly to her and her brother instead of into the trust with protective provisions because her brother’s wife was spending all of the money. The trust was supposed to protect her brother and put her in charge of his money. Turns out dad made a lot of the accounts pay on death to the children without the trust. While dad refused to tell us about his accounts, it also turns out that dad wouldn’t discuss his estate plan with the financial advisor. In the end, mom and dad’s estate wishes weren’t followed.

We want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any of our clients, and that’s why we charge significantly less for an Annual review meeting each year for no other reason than we don’t want to make it expensive just to have a “check up” to ensure your plan is still doing what you want it to.

What I See

I have been working with estate planning clients for decades now, so I have seen some typical trends and time frames that happen. However, there are a lot of exceptions, and we never know what life or the government is going to throw at us. Here’s some of the general items:

• Tax and estate changes to the law don't often require changes in our documents, but every two to four years there is at least some tax changes that impact estates that should be reviewed;
• There are changes in circumstances with trusted people in your life, the allocations and distributions may need to be adjusted, and other estate goals change about every 5 to 7 years; and
• There are usually some changes in finances, accounts, and assets change much more frequently and need to be checked, such as switching one or more investments or financial institutions.

Annual Review Meeting Agenda

What happens at the Annual Review Meetings? The outline is simple but hits all of the important parts.

• Questions from our clients: The best way to start the Annual Review Meeting is by covering the questions that our clients are bringing to the meeting. After all, those questions lead to the most critical advise and, potentially, making changes to the estate plan and the documents.
• Review changes in law, if any: While there may not always be changes in estate planning law, there are often changes and opportunities when tax laws changes that are worth mentioning and reviewing. While this may require a follow-up by our clients with their tax advisor, a different tax strategy may very well result in long term tax savings for either our clients or their beneficiaries.
• Review previous trust funding recommendations: Part of the Annual Review Meeting is to see if any changes have been made in accounts and other assets since the last meeting. As I mentioned, clients may not need changes to their actual estate planning documents all of the time, but they may change up a bank, job, insurance, or investment firm on a more regular basis, and that could impact the overall estate plan.
• Review the Big Four Decisions: While changes to the actual documents may not be needed on a more frequent basis, we can quickly see if there are any items requiring a change by running through the “Big Four” questions as if they were brand new and comparing them to what you previously had. Many times, clients who have not been in the office for a few years are actually surprised by the people they had listed as trustees or health care agents. (For this part, we really dissuade our clients from pointing to their trust binder and telling us “it’s right in there.” The purpose is to answer the questions based on your decisions now, and not from what they were years ago. We can then compare your current choices under today’s circumstances rather than what you had decided in years past.)
• Discuss potential long term care needs: This is not something we do every time, but it is good to take a few moments to review the different long term care options available just to keep the concept on your mind as time goes on. While this may not directly lead to changes in your own life circumstances, investments, or plans, many of our clients have had this discussion with us and realized we needed to help their parents arrange things differently. Typically, we are covering this every 2-3 years with our clients who keep their Annual Review Meeting every year.

What Should I Do?

So, what should be done to set up your Annual Review Meeting with our office? If you are a trust client of ours, then please do the following:

• Call the office at (919) 844-7993 to set up the Annual Review Meeting.
• Fill out an updated Confidential Financial Analysis form and send in to office. This will be attached to the confirmation email from our office, and you can always request one to be emailed directly to you.
• Be ready to discuss those Big Four questions from your perspective NOW and not necessarily from what your choices were in years past.
• Most importantly, bring your own questions!

This is really your opportunity to discuss your questions, goals, and objectives without paying the usual hourly rate for an experienced estate planning attorney. Remember, the Annual Review Meeting and the greatly reduced price is only for our existing clients, and it is highly recommended for clients who have revocable living trusts. We are happy to help our clients stay on top of their plans rather than deal with the plans going haywire because they weren’t maintained.