Does My Old Plan Still Work?
If your plan was signed years ago and your life has changed — new assets, marriages, divorces, births, deaths — your documents may no longer match your actual situation or do what you originally intended.
What you should know
- The most common estate planning failure is not a missing document. It is a document set up correctly years ago that didn’t get updated as life moved on.
- A trust funded in one year can have meaningful gaps a few years later if new accounts were opened in your personal name or beneficiary forms were reset by an employer change.
- Beneficiary designations on life insurance, IRAs, and 401(k)s can quietly become outdated after a divorce, remarriage, or the death of a named beneficiary.
- Out-of-state real estate not titled into a trust can cause a separate probate in the property’s state, even if the rest of your plan avoids probate.
- A brief review every few years can catch drift before it shows up at exactly the wrong moment.
What it looks like for one family
The same plan, left on the shelf or reviewed every few years, holds up two very different ways.
A plan left on the shelf
The gap surfaces at the worst time
Bob and Peggy Caldwell set up a trust ten years ago. Since then they refinanced the house and opened two new bank accounts in their own names — none retitled into the trust. When Bob dies, those assets fall outside the trust and land in probate anyway.
A plan reviewed every few years
Drift gets caught early
With a short periodic review, the new accounts and the refinanced deed are retitled into the trust and the beneficiary forms are refreshed — so the plan still does what it was built to do.
Bob, Peggy, and the Caldwell family are a composite example used to show how the choice plays out — not a real client.
Is your plan still keeping up with your life?
Twelve quick questions about what’s changed since your plan was last reviewed. Brent reads your answer back to you at the end.
A 60-second guided check. See how much your life has drifted from the plan on paper.