A person’s estate plan must account for the fact that his or her life is constantly changing. Major life changes, such as marriages and divorces, typically have an impact on the way that a person would like his or her assets to be distributed upon his or her death. Moreover, between the time a person first drafts his or her estate plan and his or her death, he or she will likely see changes in his or her wealth, tax laws, and the growing and waning popularity and usefulness of certain estate planning tools such as trusts. A recent article discusses how to revamp your estate plan.
Luckily, there are many ways through which a person can revamp his or her estate plan. With the assistance of an estate-planning attorney, it is typically easy to revoke a revocable trust or other revocable arrangement as long as the person who created the document is still competent to do so. Moreover, a competent person can change his or her will at any time.
If you have irrevocable estate planning documents, there may be methods through which you can modify or revoke these as well. For example, one way to modify an irrevocable trust is decanting. Essentially, the process of decanting involves pouring the assets of one irrevocable trust into another irrevocable trust. The other irrevocable trust will of course have different terms that are more favorable to a person’s new circumstances.
For assistance in adjusting your estate plan, contact us at (626) 696-3145.
